LARS 


.MO 


Fifty  Years   of  Federation 

of  the 

Young   Men's 

Christian  Associations 

of  North  America 


___ 


v 

RICHARD  C.   MORSE 


General  Secretary  of  the  International  Committee 

New  York 

The  International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 

Christian  Associations 

1905 

The  story  of  the  fifty  years  of  federation,  com- 
memorated in  the  Jubilee  convention  of  1904,  is 
summarized  in  this  volume  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  writer's  experience  and  his  personal  relation 
to  federation  effort  during  the  last  thirty-five  years. 
It  is  offered  to  his  fellow  workers  in  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  as  a  contribution  to 
the  history  of  this  important  agency  of  the  North 
American  associations.  Its  preparation  was  begun 
in  connection  with  a  brief  paper  on  the  subject  read 
by  the  writer  at  the  Jubilee  International  Con- 
vention held  in  Buffalo,  May  11-15,  1904. 

R.  C,  M. 


Copyright,  1905,  by 

the  International  Committee  of 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 


5-I-P2178-1-05 


CONTENTS 

Page 
Introduction. — The  Meaning  and  Mission  of  Christian 

Federation 5 

I.  The  First  Convention,  1854 7 

Its  author  and  object.     The  call  and  the  response.     The 

Confederation  and  how  it  was  formed.  The  value  and 
spirit  of  the  convention.  The  Central  Committee,  its 
work  and  general  secretary.     The  early  associations. 

II.  The    Three    Periods   of  Association   Federation, 
1854-1904 22 

III.  The  First  Period  of  Federation,  1854-1866.     The 
Civil  War  Episode 23 

The  ten  conventions.  The  story  of  the  first  six  and 
their  conception  of  association  work.  The  career  of 
Mr.  Langdon.  The  seven  central  committees.  World 
federation,  World  conferences  and  European  visita- 
tion by  R.  C.  McCormick,  W.  C  Langdon  and  W. 
H.  Neff.  The  United  States  Christian  Commission. 
The  conventions  of  1863  and  1864. 

IV.  The  Second  Period  of  Federation,  1866-1883      .     .     40 
The  convention  of  new  departures,  1866.     Concentration 

on  work  for  young  men.  The  first  term  of  the  Inter- 
national Committee;  its  chairman,  Cephas  Brainerd; 
secretarial  member  and  first  agent.  The  career  of  H. 
Thane  Miller.  Establishment  of  state  and  provincial 
conventions.  The  second  to  the  sixth  terms  of  the 
International  Committee.  Its  general  secretary.  The 
evangelical  test  adopted.  William  E.  Dodge,  presi- 
dent of  the  convention  of  1869.  The  first  association 
buildings  and  secretaries.  Two  phases  of  local,  state 
and  provincial  work.  Visitation  in  the  South.  Gen- 
eral Secretaries'  Conferences  and  secretarial  training. 
International  German  speaking,  office,  traveling, 
Negro,  student  and  railroad  secretaries.     D.  L.Moody. 


Contents 

Page 
Growth  of  state,  provincial,   secretarial  and  building 
movements.     World     federation     and     conferences. 
Associations  started  in  foreign  mission  lands. 

V.  The  Third  Period  of  Federation,  1883-1904     .     .     .65 
The  time  of   greatest  enlargement.     Incorporation  of 

International  Committee.  Specialization  on  internal 
development  of  local  associations,  in  buildings  and 
secretaries,  in  organization  of  student,  railroad  and 
other  classes  of  young  men,  and  in  the  physical,  edu- 
cational and  religious  work.  Metropolitan  and  county 
organizations  recognized  and  fostered.  Federation 
relationships  defined.  The  Grand  Rapids  (1899)  and 
Buffalo  (1894)  convention  resolutions.  Growing  fel- 
lowship with  association  work  on  other  continents. 

VI.  Summary  of  the  Fifty  Years  of  Federation  ...     82 
Federation  Work  has  specialized  on  concentration  upon 

work  for  young  men,  training  employed  officers,  con- 
trol by  laymen,  buildings,  departments  of  local  work 
and  classes  of  young  men.  Federation  work,  state, 
provincial  and  international  and  its  financial  support 
(with  diagrams).  Objective  of  this  work,  the  develop- 
ment of  strong  local  associations. 

VII.  Concerning  Centralization 99 

Advisory  relation  of  federation  agencies.     Their  lack  of 

legal  or  governmental  power  or  control.  Superior 
resources  of  individual  local  associations. 

VIII.  The  Value  of  Association  Federation   .      ...   103 
Shown  by  the  many  transient  features  of  the  local  asso- 
ciations, by  the  price  paid  for  supervision  and  by  the 
growth  of  conventions  and  conferences.     The  influence 
and  results  of  international  conventions. 

IX.  Summary 109 

Table  of  International  Conventions 112 

Supplement i 

Index xxv 

4 


The  First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions of  North  America 


RICHARD  C.  MORSE 


Meaning  and  Mission  of  Christian  Federation 

All  federation,  both  of  Christian  men  and  Chris- 
tian organizations,  finds  its  reason  for  existence  in 
the  sentiment  of  brotherhood.  No  individual  or 
association  bearing  the  Christian  name  lives  at  its 
best  when  it  lives  wholly  unto  itself.  As  one  of  a 
brotherhood,  each  association  owes  mutual  care  and 
help  to  its  fellow  members.  The  Bible  command 
is :  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "  Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ." 
"We  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities 
of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  ourselves  .... 
for  even  Christ  pleased  not  Himself. " 

It  is  possible  for  any  member  of  the  association 
family  to  isolate  itself  and  live  a  hermit  existence, 
just  as  it  is  equally  possible  for  a  young  man  to  iso- 
late himself  selfishly  from  parents,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters. But  the  course  of  each  is  equally  unnatural. 
The  unit  in  the  association  family,  or  in  the  human 
family,  pursuing  this  hermit  course  dwarfs  itself  and 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

loses  a  development  of  life  and  character  which  it 
can  gain  only  as  a  sympathetic  member  of  the  family 
it  belongs  to.  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations, 
therefore,  obeyed  the  law  of  their  own  existence  and 
of  divine  appointment  in  seeking  the  benefits  of  fed- 
eration. 

The  North  American  associations  sought  these 
benefits  earlier  in  their  history  than  others,  and  an 
international  federation  was  formed  by  them  on  this 
continent  a  year  before  the  older  associations  across 
the  Atlantic  called  together  at  Paris,  in  1855,  their 
first  "  General  Conference,"  composed  of  ''delegates 
from  various  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of 
Europe  and  America." 


CHAPTER    I.      THE    FIRST    CONVENTION, 

1854 

Its  Author  and  Object.  The  Call  and  the  Re- 
sponse. The  Confederation  and  How  It  was 
Formed.  The  Value  and  Spirit  of  the  Conven- 
tion. The  Central  Committee,  Its  Work  and 
General  Secretary.     The  Early  Associations. 

1.    Its  Author  and  Object — the  Obstacles 

More  than  fifty  years  ago,  when  the  number  of 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  on  this  continent 
was  less  than  thirty,  a  young  man,  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  residing  in  the  capital  of  the  United  States 
and  a  member  of  the  Washington  association,  be- 
came possessed  with  a  conviction  of  the  great  value 
of  an  alliance  of  North  American  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  conceiving  of  such  an  alliance 
<(asa  union  of  independent,  equal  but  cooperating 
societies."  He  corresponded  with  the  stronger  or- 
ganizations in  New  York  and  Boston  and  with  older 
associations  across  the  Atlantic.  His  foreign  cor- 
respondence at  this  time  was  an  influential  factor  in 
calling  later,  in  1855,  the  first  "General  or  World's 
Conference  "  at  Paris,  above  referred  to. 

This  young  man  received  no  sympathy  from  the 
stronger  American  associations  when  he  earnestly 
urged  them  to  take  the  leadership  in  this  movement. 
He  was,  however,  one  of  those  who  in  a  good  cause 
are  possessed   by   an    enthusiasm   which   obstacles 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

stimulate  rather  than  discourage.  He  was  content  to 
go  forward  without  the  sympathy  of  the  four  societies 
in  Boston  and  New  York,  Brooklyn  and  Baltimore, 
which  then  contained  more  than  half  the  member- 
ship of  the  North  American  associations.  Among 
the  objections  which  prevailed  with  these  dissenting 
associations  was  the  belief  that  conventions  and  a 
general  organization  would  draw  off  attention  from 
local  work,  would  foster  a  centralizing  spirit  at  war 
with  the  independent  action  of  local  associations, 
would  involve  financial  expenditure  unauthorized 
by  the  main  object  of  the  society,  and  would  tend  to 
produce  unpleasant  scenes  and  ruptures  on  the  sub- 
ject of  negro  slavery — then  a  topic  of  heated  dis- 
cussion, public  and  private,  political  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal, reaching  all  communities  and  households  with 
its  agitation.  The  successful  federation  of  the  as- 
sociation brotherhood,  therefore,  owes  its  origin  to 
sympathy  and  cooperation  from  the  smaller  associa- 
tions of  fifty  years  ago.  This  young  man,  William 
Chauncy  Langdon,  also  encouraged  himself  in  his 
disappointment  by  the  consideration  that  it  was,  for 
many  reasons,  very  fitting  that  this  movement  for 
federation  should  proceed  from  such  a  federal  and 
federating  city  as  the  capital  of  the  republic. 

2.    The  Call  and  the  Response  to  It 

Under  his  leadership,  and  as  a  result  of  his  visita- 
tion and  correspondence,  the  Washington  association 
received  favorable  replies  from  Buffalo,  Cincinnati 
and  seventeen  other  cities.     The  Buffalo  association 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

offered  to  entertain  the  delegations  and  joined 
Washington  in  issuing  the  call  for  the  first  inter- 
national convention  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations ever  held  on  this  or  any  continent.  For 
Washington  and  the  other  favoring  associations  the 
call  was  signed  by  Mr.  Langdon.  For  the  Buffalo 
association,  as  host,  it  was  signed  by  an  older  young 
man,  Oscar  Cobb,  who,  while  his  younger  com- 
panion had  passed  away,  was  graciously  spared  to 
sign — at  the  age  of  eighty-three  years — the  call  to 
the  jubilee  convention  of  1904. 

In  response  to  this  call  to  ' '  form  an  American 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Alliance, "  thirty- 
seven  delegates,  all  young  men,  from  nineteen  as- 
sociations, met  in  Buffalo,  June  7,  1854.  Of  the 
seventeen  cities  represented,  besides  Buffalo  and 
Washington,  five  were  in  New  England:  Boston, 
Worcester,  Springfield,  Portsmouth  and  Portland; 
one  on  the  Pacific  Coast :  San  Francisco ;  one  on  the 
Gulf:  New  Orleans;  two  in  Kentucky:  Louisville 
and  Lexington ;  two  in  Ohio :  Cincinnati  and  Cleve- 
land; three  in  Illinois :  Chicago,  Peoria  and  Quincy ; 
one  in  Missouri :  St.  Louis ;  and  one  in  Pennsylvania : 
Pittsburg.  Few  of  these  associations  have  since 
maintained  an  uninterrupted  existence.  Only  six 
now  report  their  present  organization  as  existing  in 
1854. 

Of  the  thirty-seven  delegates,  seven  beside  Mr. 
Cobb  survive,  and  four  of  these  were  present  at  the 
Jubilee  Convention,  May,  1904:  Oscar  Cobb  of  Buffa- 
lo;   Professor   W.   J.   Rhees   of   Washington;   Rev. 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

Samuel  T.  Lowrie,  D.  D.,  of  Philadelphia,  then  of 
Pittsburg;  and  J.  L.  Eldridge  of  Topeka,  then  of 
Boston.  The  four  who  could  not  attend  were: 
Samuel  Lowry  of  St.  Louis,  then  of  Cincinnati;  Rev. 
J.  H.  Marshall  of  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  then  of  Cincin- 
nati; H.  A.  Robinson  of  Springfield,  and  E.  A. 
Swan  of  Toledo,  Oregon,  then  of  Buffalo. 

3.    The  Object  Achieved — a  Confederation  Formed 

The  lively  interest  and  enthusiasm  characteristic 
of  association  conventions  were  happily  realized  in 
this  first  meeting.  Any  fear  concerning  agitation 
of  the  slavery  question  was  removed  at  the  outset 
by  the  election,  as  president,  of  George  W.  Helme 
of  New  Orleans,  and  by  a  refusal  to  take  action  up- 
on the  subject  as  irrelevant. 

The  most  stirring  question  before  the  convention 
naturally  related  to  what  the  call  had  proposed :  ' '  the 
formation  of  an  American  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  Alliance. "  Delayed  on  his  way  to  Buffa- 
lo, Mr.  Langdon  did  not  reach  there  until  the  second 
day  of  the  meeting.  On  the  first  day,  owing  in  part 
to  his  absence,  a  proposition  prevailed  which  pro- 
vided only  for  the  call  of  a  second  convention.  This 
action  was  deemed  inadequate  by  the  friends  of  fed- 
eration who  had  called  the  convention,  and  an  ad- 
journment without  forming  the  desired  alliance  was 
only  prevented  by  a  reconsideration,  accomplished 
through  the  vigorous  exertions  of  the  Cincinnati 
delegation. 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

4.    The  Story  of  William  H.  Neff 

A  member  of  this  delegation,  William  H.  Neff, 
gives  the  following  graphic  account  of  this  historic 
incident : — 

"  My  knowledge  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
dates  from  the  spring  of  1854,  when  I  united  with  the  Society  of 
Religious  Inquiry  of  Cincinnati.  It  was  composed  of  about 
twenty-five  members  of  various  denominations  and  met  in  the 
second  story  of  the  Bible  Depository. 

"Soon  after  I  joined,  we  received  a  communication  from 
William  Chauncy  Langdon,  secretary  of  the  Washington  asso- 
ciation, informing  us  that  a  convention  of  associations  would 
be  held  in  Buffalo,  to  consider  closer  union  or  interchange  of 
thought  among  the  associations,  especially  through  an  annual 
convention  and  perhaps  some  kind  of  Confederation  for  mutual 
support  and  sympathy.  He  asked  us  to  appoint  delegates  to 
represent  us  if  we  entertained  the  idea  favorably.  We  were 
pleased  with  the  suggestion  and  three  delegates  were  ap- 
pointed— Samuel  Lowry,  Joseph  H.  Marshall  and  myself.  We 
arranged  to  divide  among  us  the  topics  suggested — Samuel 
Lowry  to  represent  us  in  reference  to  an  annual  convention, 
Joseph  Marshall  to  present  the  mission  Sunday-school  work 
in  which  our  association  was  greatly  interested,  having  charge 
at  this  time  of  seven  schools,  and  the  topic  of  the  Confederation 
was  given  to  me. 

11  We  were  very  kindly  received  in  Buffalo,  found  over  thirty 
delegates  in  attendance,  and  made  George  W.  Helme,  of  New 
Orleans,  who  had  come  the  greatest  distance,  president  of  the 
conference.  That  afternoon,  while  I  was  absent  in  a  committee 
meeting,  the  business  committee  reported  unfavorably  on  the 
subject  of  a  Confederation,  and  the  report  was  adopted.  Lowry 
had  been  outvoted.  Nothing  remained  but  to  accept  the  minutes 
and  say  good-by  to  each  other,  and  this  was  to  be  done  the  next 
morning. 

"To  say  that  the  Cincinnati  delegation  was  disappointed 
would  be  a  very  mild  expression.     What  was  to  be  done?    What 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

could  be  done?  The  first  thing  was  to  get  the  decision  of  the 
convention  reconsidered.  Who  would  move  the  reconsideration? 
The  matter  of  the  Confederation  had  been  assigned  to  me  in 
our  delegation,  but  I  had  not  voted  for  the  report  or  even  been 
present  when  the  vote  was  taken.  Would  the  president  enter- 
tain a  motion  to  reconsider  from  a  member  who  had  not  been 
present?  Mr.  Helme  said  that  as  I  had  been  absent  on  work 
for  the  convention,  and  from  no  fault  of  my  own,  he  would  en- 
tertain the  motion  if  made  promptly  before  the  minutes  were 
approved.  Then  we  went  to  work.  Lowry  and  Marshall  but- 
tonholed the  delegates.  I  began  work  on  the  resolutions.  That 
night  I  spent  in  prayer  and  preparation.  When  the  resolutions 
and  the  address  to  support  them  were  ready,  the  gray  dawn  of 
the  morning  was  appearing  in  the  east.  A  short  rest,  a  hurried 
breakfast,  and  we  were  ready  for  the  battle.  Langdon  had  ar- 
rived early  in  the  morning  of  this  second  day.  He  approved 
heartily  of  the  resolutions  and  promised  to  second  them.  As 
soon  as  the  convention  was  called  to  order  I  moved  the  recon- 
sideration. It  was  not  debatable,  but  curiosity,  love  of  fair 
play  and  the  labors  of  Lowry  and  Marshall  gave  us  a  majority. 
Then  I  introduced  my  resolutions  as  an  amendment  to  the  re- 
port of  the  business  committee,  and  advocated  their  adoption. 
Langdon  handsomely  supported  me.  The  resolutions  were  re- 
committed along  with  the  report  to  the  committee,  and  Lang- 
don and  myself  were  added  to  it  in  place  of  two  members  who 
had  left  the  city.  As  soon  as  we  entered  the  committee  room 
I  proposed  that  we  should  recommend  nothing  on  which  we 
were  not  unanimous.  This  gave  each  one  a  veto  power  and 
disarmed  opposition.  In  two  hours  we  had  agreed  to  recom- 
mend a  Confederation,  an  annual  convention  and  a  Central 
Committee  of  correspondence.  The  convention  adopted  our 
report  with  but  one  dissenting  vote,  and  then,  on  the  motion  of 
that  delegate,  the  action  was  made  unanimous." 

5.    The  Value  and  Spirit  of  the  Convention 

Thus  a  confederation  of  "independent,  equal  but 
cooperating  associations  "  was  formed,  subject  to  a 

12 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ratification  of  this  action  by  twenty- two  associations. 
Any  authority  over  the  local  organization  was  ex- 
plicitly guarded  against.  The  equality  of  the  indi- 
vidual associations  also  was  guaranteed,  each  one, 
however  large  or  small  its  membership  or  delegation, 
being  entitled  to  but  one  vote  in  the  convention. 
The  proposal  to  make  the  evangelical  church  test  of 
membership,  which  was  already  in  force  in  many  of 
the  associations,  a  test  of  membership  in  the  Confed- 
eration was  rejected  as  threatening  the  independence 
of  the  local  association. 

What  chiefly  impressed  the  delegates  with  the 
value  of  the  convention  was  the  reports  made  con- 
cerning the  work  of  the  various  societies  repre- 
sented. This  gave  to  each  a  knowledge  of  the  work 
all  were  doing,  a  knowledge  full  of  lively  suggestion 
and  exciting  useful  discussion.  Both  report  and 
discussion  revealed  above  all  else  to  the  delegates 
the  unity  of  their  faith  in  Christ,  their  loyalty  to  His 
church,  and  their  unanimous  central  purpose  to 
bring  young  men  and  all  others  whom  they  could 
influence  into  His  kingdom.  Congenial  personal 
intercourse  also  began  the  formation  of  lifelong 
friendships.  Deep  spiritual  feeling  characterized 
the  farewell  meeting  and  established  conviction  of 
the  great  value  of  this  federation  and  of  what  might 
grow  out  of  it. 

6.    The  Committee  of  the  First  Convention ;  Its  Location,  Work  and  Gen- 
eral Secretary 

A  second  agency  of  federation  was  created  by  the 

convention  to  act  between  its  meetings.     This  con- 

13 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

sisted  of  the  Executive  or  Central  Committee,  com- 
posed of  five  members  resident  in  Washington  and 
five  in  as  many  other  cities,  each  of  the  five  to  rep- 
resent and  care  for  a  specified  district  or  section  of 
the  continent. 

The  Committee  was  instructed  to  canvass  for  and 
complete  the  organization  of  the  Confederation.  Of 
the  beginning  of  this  effort  Mr.  Neff  writes : 

' '  The  Confederation  was  to  go  into  operation 
when  two-thirds  (twenty-two)  of  the  associations  in 
the  United  States  and  the  British  Provinces  ratified 
the  action  at  Buffalo.  There  was  then  a  race  to  see 
which  would  first  ratify.  A  meeting  of  our  associa- 
tion was  called  for  the  evening  after  our  return,  and 
the  Buffalo  action  was  unanimously  approved.  Cin- 
cinnati was  thus  the  first  to  ratify."  Washington 
and  some  ten  associations  speedily  followed.  But  it 
was  only  after  seven  months  of  wise  effort  by  Sec- 
retary Langdon  in  correspondence,  consultation  and 
visitation  that  ratification  by  the  desired  twenty-two 
associations,  including  that  of  New  York  City,  was 
happily  secured.  Of  these  critical  negotiations  Mr. 
Langdon  modestly  writes :  "  As  Mr.  McBurney  says: 
'  To  overcome  such  prejudices  and  objections  as  yet 
remained  was  no  easy  task. '  I  did  indeed  '  conduct 
the  negotiations,'  yet  the  ultimate  success  of  these 
and  the  first  triumph  of  the  plan  matured  at  Buffalo 
was  largely  due  to  the  hearty  cooperation  of  Messrs. 
Neff  and  Helme,  and  so  far  as  New  York  was  con- 
cerned, of  Mr.  McCartee. "     But  the  writer  of  these 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

lines  was  the  responsible  leader  wisely  and  effectively 
uniting  the  efforts  of  his  associates.* 

The  Central  Committee  was  also  instructed  to  call 
the  next  convention,  correspond  with  American  and 
foreign  associations,  form  new  associations,  and  rec- 
ommend new  measures  to  existing  associations. 
But  in  the  first  year  of  its  existence  it  was  care- 
fully defined  as  ' '  not  a  governing  function  or  agency 
authorized  to  assume  any  control,  but  rather  a  crea- 
ture of  the  confederated  associations  for  certain 
definite  and  limited  purposes." 

The  committee  upon  its  appointment  chose  Mr. 
Langdon  as  its  executive  officer.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  this  first  executive  officer  of  the  federa- 
tion committee  was  also  the  first  to  bear  the  name 
of  general  secretary,  though  he  did  so  as  a  volun- 
teer worker  and  not  as  an  employed  officer.  The 
call  to  the  first  convention  he  had  signed  as  corre- 


*The  action  of  the  Buffalo  convention  favoring  the  forming  of  the  Con- 
federation was  ratified  by  the  associations  in  the  following  order  : 

(1)  Cincinnati.  (.13)  Alexandria. 

(2)  Washington.  (14)  New  York. 

(3)  St.  Louis.  (15)  Concord,  N.  H. 

(4)  Buffalo.  (16)  Rochester. 

(5)  Louisville.  (17)  Cleveland. 

(6)  Toronto.  (18)  Harrisburg. 

(7)  New  Orleans.  (19)  Richmond. 

(8)  Pittsburg.  (20)  Ellicott's  Mills,  Md. 

(9)  Quincy.  (21)  Lexington,  Ky. 

(10)  Charlestown,  Mass.  (22)    Charleston. 

(11)  Philadelphia.  (23)    San  Francisco. 

(12)  Georgetown,  D.  C  (24)    Montreal. 

On  February  20,  1855,  a  circular  was  issued  by  the  Central  Committee, 
through  General  Secretary  Langdon,  announcing  the  completed  organ- 
ization of  the  Confederation. 

15 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

sponding  secretary  of  the  Washington  association. 
But  it  is  as  general  secretary  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Confederation  that  he  signs  his  name 
to  the  call  for  the  second  convention  in  1855.  For 
when  the  committee  met  for  organization  in  Wash- 
ington, in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Washington  asso- 
ciation had  both  a  corresponding  and  recording  sec- 
retary, the  term  general  secretary  was  employed  to 
designate  the  executive  officer  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Confederation.  This  title  was  used 
only  of  and  by  Mr.  Langdon  during  the  single  year 
(1854-55)  in  which  he  held  the  office.  It  was  not 
adopted  by  his  successors.* 

7.    The  Constituency  of  the  Convention — the  Early  Associations 

These  associations  of  fifty  years  ago  thus  happily 
confederated  were  composed  wholly  of  laymen  as 

♦Fourteen  years  later,  when  the  Washington  association,  in  1868, 
called  George  A.  Hall  to  become  its  employed  executive  officer,  it  had 
need  of  a  new  title  for  the  new  office,  and  again  in  Washington 
there  was  resort  to  the  name  of  general  secretary.  Three  years  later, 
in  1871,  was  held  in  Washington,  after  the  adjournment  there  of  the  in- 
ternational convention  of  that  year,  the  first  meeting  of  the  salaried 
officers  of  the  North  American  associations.  No  two  of  the  thirteen  who 
then  met  were  called  by  the  same  name.  The  title  of  the  Washington 
member,  general  secretary,  seemed  to  all  the  preferable  one  and  was 
adopted.  It  slowly  commended  itself  to  the  choice  of  the  associations. 
In  the  Year  Book  of  1873  is  given  the  first  list  of  employed  officers  under 
this  title.  The  name  being  not  yet  generally  applied  it  seemed  at  that 
date  needful  to  put  in  a  foot  note  the  following  statement :  "  By  this 
name  is  intended  the  officer  of  the  association  who  is  salaried  to  give  all 
or  a  specified  portion  of  his  time  to  the  work  of  the  society." 

Gradually  the  name  commended  itself  to  the  associations  of  this  and 
other  continents.  In  1882  the  New  York  association  changed  the  official 
title  of  Mr.  McBurney  from  corresponding  secretary  of  the  board  of 
directors  to  general  secretary.  In  1878  the  committee  of  the  World's 
Conference  gave  the  name  to  the  first  officer  employed  by  it.  This  also 
helped  to  give  to  the  title  its  present  world  currency. 

16 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

volunteers.  The  place  of  the  trained  employed 
officer  or  general  secretary  was  not  yet  filled.  No 
association  building  had  been  or  for  more  than  ten 
years  was  to  be  secured.  ' '  The  Boston  association, " 
writes  Mr.  Langdon,  "is  the  first,  the  largest  and 
the  most  prosperous  in  the  United  States."  It  re- 
ported in  1854,  a  membership  of  2,500,  fine  rooms 
in  Tremont  Temple,  and  large  meetings  of  young 
men.  Its  committee  on  visitation  of  the  sick  num- 
bered 150.  It  had  formed  plans  to  engage  in  the 
work  of  home  missions  and  mission  Sunday-schools, 
after  the  example  of  the  London  society.  Later, 
on  Boston  Common,  it  held  large  "out-door 
services  " — evangelistic  meetings  for  all  classes — 
occupying  a  mammoth  tent  for  the  purpose. 

To  the  convention  of  1854  the  Cincinnati  associa- 
tion reported  seventy  active  members,  beside  honor- 
ary and  associate,  "rooms  handsomely  furnished, 
open  every  evening.  The  library  contains  400 
volumes  of  select  works,  and  the  reading  room 
forty  papers  and  magazines. "  The  association  was 
conducting  seven  Sunday-schools  attended  by  five 
hundred  children.  A  strong  emphasis  was  placed 
upon  the  self -improvement  of  active  members. 

Toronto  reported  120  members,  weekly  meetings 
and  tract  distribution. 

The  reports  of  this  work  so  impressed  Mr.  Lang- 
don that  on  the  floor  of  the  convention  he  eulogized 
Toronto  and  Cincinnati  as  the  two  associations  most 
worthy  of  imitation. 

New  Orleans  reported  a  ministry  to  sufferers  from 

17 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  plague  of  yellow  fever,  so  courageous,  wide  and 
effective  that  it  had  commended  the  association  to 
strong  popular  approval. 

The  New  York  City  association — the  fourteenth  in 
the  list  forming  the  Confederation — was  not  repre- 
sented at  the  convention.  It  had,  in  1854,  1,600 
members.  Its  work  was  wholly  by  and  for  young 
men,  with  reading  room,  library,  parlors,  prayer 
meetings,  Bible  classes,  lectures  and  committee  work, 
calling  for  an  annual  expenditure  of  $2,100.  This 
concentration  upon  work  by  and  for  young  men  was 
from  the  beginning  the  marked  characteristic  of  this 
association. 

The  Montreal  association,  the  first  organized  in 
North  America,  and  the  host  of  the  third  convention, 
in  1856,  was  not  represented  at  Buffalo,  but  was 
among  the  most  vigorous  and  active  of  the  early  as- 
sociations. It  was  the  twenty-fourth  on  the  list  of 
those  joining  the  Confederation. 

Of  the  association  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  formed 
a  few  months  after  the  convention,  the  following  ac- 
count appeared  in  the  Richmond  Central  Presbyterian 
in  1857,  when  the  association  was  three  years  old, 
and  entertained  the  convention  of  that  year : 

"One  of  the  noblest  institutions  in  this  city  is  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  .  .  .  It  has  its  committees  for 
seeking  out  and  relieving  the  destitute,  for  visiting  the  inmates 
of  poor-houses  and  hospitals,  for  making  the  acquaintance  of 
young  men  on  their  first  arrival  in  the  city,  for  the  purpose  of 
aiding  them  in  finding  employment  and  surrounding  them  with 
moral  and  religious  influences;  it  furnishes  teachers  to  Sabbath- 
schools,  it  conducts  strangers  to  the  house  of  God.     .     .     .     For 

18 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  entertainment  and  profit  of  its  members,  it  has  established 
a  library  and  reading  room ;  it  has  its  meetings  for  friendly  in- 
tercourse, its  rhetorical  society  for  literary  exercises  and  foren- 
sic discussions,  its  meetings  for  business  and  its  meetings  for 
prayer;  and,  in  addition  to  these  means  of  mental  and  spiritual 
improvement,  it  has  formed  another  circle  for  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  On  every  Thursday  night,  the  hall  of  the  as- 
sociation is  thrown  open  to  all  who  are  willing  to  attend  infor- 
mal lectures  and  examinations  on  portions  of  Scripture  selected 
for  the  occasion.  This  Bible  class  is  under  the  direction  of  one 
of  the  pastors  of  the  city ;  and  any  young  man  who  desires  to 
become  a  member  of  it  is  at  liberty  to  do  so,  whether  he  is  a 
member  of  any  church  or  not,  and  whether  he  is  a  member  of 
the  association  or  not. " 

In  all  the  work  of  this  period,  in  every  description 
and  advocacy  of  it,  the  dominant  note  is  religious, 
with  an  emphasis  on  loyalty  to  the  church  of  Christ. 

From  Charleston  comes  to  us  the  most  enthusias- 
tic description  and  advocacy  in  literary  form  of  the 
associations  of  this  period.  It  appears  in  a  volume 
of  123  pages  entitled  "Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations," and  published  in  1858.  Its  author  was 
an  eminent  minister,  Dr.  Thomas  Smyth,  of  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  who  writes: 

"Already  these  associations  have  done  much,  and  have  de- 
vised many  hitherto  unpractised,  if  not  unthoughtof,  ways  and 
walks  of  usefulness.  They  are  now  found  in  the  lanes  and 
streets  and  thoroughfares  of  our  cities,  gathering  the  outcast, 
ragged  children  into  schools,  visiting  the  sick  and  the  dying, 
the  fatherless  and  the  widow,  and,  by  tracts  and  books  and  lec- 
tures, carrying  the  gospel  to  every  house  and  hovel  and  garret 
and  chamber.  'Like  a  sunbeam  passing  undefiled  through  the 
foulest  atmosphere,'  they  are  seen  laboring  in  Christian  purity 
and  love  where  the  basest  of  the  race  are  perishing,  not  shrink- 

19 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ing  from  their  loathsome  guilt,  but,  with  Jesus'  pity  and  Jesus' 
tears,  offering  to  the  very  chief  of  sinners  the  cup  of  salvation, 
the  bread  of  life,  the  manna  of  heaven,  the  living  water,  and 
the  healing  balm. 

"  Under  their  auspices,  we  find  outdoor  preaching  in  the 
streets  or  parks  or  commons  of  some  of  our  large  cities.  They 
have  given  rise  also  to  many  valuable  series  of  public  lectures 
to  young  men.  And  by  their  annual  conferences  they  are  now 
converging  into  one  center  the  light  and  heat,  the  enterprise 
and  experience,  of  all  the  affiliated  societies,  and  giving  the  best 
opportunity  for  awakening  and  diffusing  the  spirit  of  ever- 
widening  charity." 

After  an  eloquent  description  of  association  agen- 
cies of  hospitality,  Dr.  Smyth  says  as  to  the  future 
of  this  work : 

• '  Every  association  ought  to  have  a  very  comfortable,  spa- 
cious, well-aired  and  well-situated  house — A  Home.  This 
building  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  provide  a  convenient  read- 
ing room,  well  supplied  with  papers  and  one  or  more  periodicals ; 
a  sitting  room,  commodiously  furnished  and  suitably  aired  and 
warmed;  a  library  supplied  with  fresh,  attractive  and  profitable 
books ;  and  a  hall  for  social  meetings,  private  lectures,  essays 
and  debates,  Bible  classes,  and  for  whatever  other  exercises  may 
be  suggested  by  a  wise  experience. 

'  *  Every  association  should  have  the  means  also  of  providing 
lectures  from  distinguished  men  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
of  publishing  and  circulating  such  lectures,  addresses,  or  tracts 
as  would  be  found  useful  to  young  men. 

' '  There  is  thus  a  necessity  for  means  far  beyond  those  hither- 
to provided,  both  for  making  such  associations  what  they  have 
not  yet  been,  and  for  opening  to  them  ways  of  usefulness  and 
sources  of  attraction  not  yet  contemplated. 

11 1  appeal,  then,  on  behalf  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation among  you,  to  every  merchant  and  man  of  business 
in  the  community.  Here  is  a  way  in  which  you  may  greatly 
benefit  the  young  men  of  your  adopted  and  cherished  city. " 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

Nearly  fifty  years  have  passed  away  since  these 
words  were  written,  but  they  give  a  bright  and  accu- 
rate forecast  of  scores  of  association  buildings  now 
to  be  found  in  ''adopted  and  cherished  cities"  of 
the  donors,  who  have  in  this  way  generously  ac- 
knowledged their  obligation  to  promote  the  best 
welfare  of  the  young  men  of  these  cities. 

The  convention  of  1854  opened  before  these  young 
associations  the  first  period  of  their  federation. 


CHAPTER   II.     THE    THREE    PERIODS    OF 
ASSOCIATION   FEDERATION, 

1854-1904. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  narrative  the  fifty  years 
of  federation  commemorated  in  the  Jubilee  con- 
vention of  1904  may  be  divided  into  three  periods. 

The  first,  1854-1866,  lasting  twelve  years,  includ- 
ing the  period  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  United  States 
Christian  Commission,  was  a  time  of  testing  and 
experiment  for  both  the  associations  and  their  agen- 
cies of  federation.  It  terminated  at  the  opening  of 
the  era-making  convention  of  1866,  which  might  be 
termed  the  convention  of  new  departures. 

The  second  period,  from  1866  to  1883,  was  one  of 
consolidation — during  which  both  associations  and 
federation  agencies  gradually  grasped  more  fully 
their  distinctive  mission  as  a  work  by  young  men  of 
many  classes  for  young  men  of  many  classes.  It 
was  also  the  period  of  the  employed  officer,  the 
building  and  the  group  or  class  organization. 

The  third  and  latest  period,  from  1883  to  1904, 
comprises  twenty-one  years  of  rapid  growth  visible 
in  the  internal  development  both  of  the  individual 
associations  and  of  the  agencies  of  supervision  they 
had  created. 


22 


CHAPTER    III.      THE     FIRST     PERIOD    OF 

FEDERATION,  1854-1866.     THE  CIVIL 

WAR  EPISODE 

The  Ten  Conventions  and  Their  Conception 
of  Association  Work.  The  Career  of  Mr. 
Langdon.  The  Seven  Central  Committees. 
World  Federation,  World  Conferences  and 
European  Visitation  by  R.  C.  McCormick, 
W.  C.  Langdon  and  W.  H.  Neff.  The  United 
States  Christian  Commission.  The  Conven- 
tions  of   1863    and    1864. 

(1)  The  Ten  Conventions  and  Their  Conception 
of  Association  Work 

During  the  twelve  years  of  the  first  period,  ten 
conventions,  including  the  first,  met  in  ten  different 
cities — three  in  the  South,  at  Richmond,  Charleston 
and  New  Orleans ;  two  in  the  West,  at  Cincinnati 
and  Chicago;  two  in  the  state  of  New  York,  at 
Buffalo  and  Troy;  one  at  Boston,  one  at  Philadel- 
phia, and  one  in  Canada,  at  Montreal.  More  than 
200  associations  were  organized  during  these  years, 
but  so  many  of  them  ceased  to  exist  during  the 
Civil  War  that  not  over  sixty  survived  that  struggle 
and  were  reported  at  the  Albany  convention  of  1866 
as  still  in  existence.  The  three  associations  in 
Washington,  Buffalo  and  Cincinnati  were  the  only 
ones  represented  at  all  these  ten  conventions. 

23 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

(2)  Story  of  the  Second,  Third  and  Fourth  Con- 
ventions (/<?55-57) 

Of  the  second  and  third  conventions  Mr.  Neff 
writes : — 

"The  next  year  (1855)  the  convention  was  held  in  Cincin- 
nati, with  about  sixty  delegates  in  attendance,  and  was  a  great 
success.  The  best  private  houses  in  Cincinnati  were  thrown 
open  to  the  delegates.  Langdon  was  chosen  president.  Cap- 
tain (afterwards  General)  W.  Hatt  Noble,  of  the  Royal  En- 
gineers, was  chairman  of  the  Montreal  delegation  and  attracted 
great  attention  by  his  manly  bearing  and  interest  in  the  cause. 
Montreal  was  selected  as  the  next  place  of  meeting  and  the 
Central  Committee  was  located  at  Cincinnati.  H.  Thane  Mil- 
ler was  chairman  of  the  Committee,  Lowry  and  myself  were 
members,  and  Langdon  and  Rhees  were  among  the  correspond- 
ing members,  Langdon  being  made  the  foreign  secretary.  That 
was  a  memorable  year  in  the  history  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Associations.  Many  new  associations  were  organized, 
largely  through  the  exertions  of  the  Central  Committee.  A 
paper  was  published,  edited  by  Samuel  Lowry,  and  had  a  wide 
circulation." 

The  transfer  of  the  Central  Committee  from 
Washington  was  due  to  the  determination  reached 
during  the  previous  winter  by  Mr.  Langdon  "to 
withdraw  from  further  official  work."  In  his  Story 
of  the  Confederation  he  writes : — 

"My  motives  in  all  I  had  so  far  done  and  tried  to  do  had  been 

severely  characterized  in  certain  societies It  had  been 

publicly  charged  that  there  was  little  real  object  in  the  scheme 
but  my  own  personal  aim  to  open  an  arena  for  my  own  am- 
bition. To  Mr.  Helme  I  wrote  (February,  1855)  :  'I  have 
thought  my  continuance  as  general  secretary  was,  perhaps, 
positively  detrimental  to  our  dear  cause,  and  the  removal  of 

24 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  Central  Committee  from  Washington  and  the  appointment 
of  some  one  else  as  general  secretary  would  free  the  Confedara- 
tion  from  many  disagreeable  and  serious  drawbacks  upon  its 
unanimity  and  strength.'  My  wish  and  purpose,  however,  to 
retire  were  most  earnestly  resisted.  Messrs.  Neff,  Helme  and 
Lowry  combated  my  intention.  The  last  named  wrote:  'I 
could  not  but  consider  it  fatal  to  the  union  of  our  associations.' 
Mr.  Neff  visited  me  and  I  consented  to  write  the  report  for 
the  Paris  Conference  (the  first  General  Conference,  August, 
1855),  and  to  retain  the  general  secretaryship  until  the  next 
convention  (September,  1855),  on  the  understanding  that  the 
Central  Committee  should  then  be  removed  from  Washington 
and  I  be  permitted  to  retire  from  official  position  and  duty." 

The  story  of  Mr.  Neff  continues : — 

"To  the  convention  of  1856  at  Montreal,  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Boston  and  Brooklyn  sent  representatives,  though  all 
did  not  become  full  members  of  the  Confederation.  The  peo- 
ple of  Montreal  gave  us  a  hearty  welcome.  Three  hundred 
delegates  were  in  attendance.  Among  the  vice  presidents  were 
George  H.  Stuart  of  Philadelphia,  R.  C.  McCormick  of  New 
York  (afterward  governor  of  Arizona),  who  in  the  previous 
year  had  been  welcomed  in  a  tour  among  the  European  so- 
cieties as  the  first  representative  among  them  of  the  associa- 
tions on  this  continent,  and  Major  R.  C.  Gilchrist  of  Charles- 
ton. Our  meetings  were  held  in  the  largest  church  in  Mon- 
treal, and  the  evening  audiences  numbered  fifteen  hundred 
people.  Lord  Frederick  Bruce,  the  brother  and  representative 
of  the  Earl  of  Elgin,  then  governor-general  of  Canada,  gave  us 
a  reception  at  the  viceroy's  residence  on  Montreal  Mountain. 
The  Confederation  was  now  a  success,  and  from  that  day  went 
on  increasing  in  power,  influence  and  usefulness. 

"An  amusing  incident  shows  the  spirit  of  the  convention. 
The  Cincinnati  delegates,  with  those  from  Cleveland  and  sev- 
eral other  Ohio  cities,  went  by  boat  down  the  St.  Lawrence 
river.     A  fog  detained  the  steamer  and,  instead  of  arriving 

25 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

early  in  the  morning  in  time  for  the  first  session,  we  did  not 
reach  Montreal  until  late  in  the  afternoon.  A  reception  com- 
mittee met  us  at  the  gangway,  and  much  to  my  surprise,  in- 
formed me  that  I  had  been  elected  president  of  the  convention 
and  was  expected  to  take  charge  of  the  public  meeting  in  the 
American  church  that  evening.  The  church  was  filled  with  a 
large  audience.  I  gave  out  the  hymn  'Blest  be  the  tie  that 
binds.'  Immediately  there  was  a  titter  in  the  audience.  But 
everything  seemed  right  and  I  read  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
Romans.  The  titter  had  now  broadened  almost  into  a  laugh, 
but  the  audience  seemed  in  a  very  good  humor  and  there  were 
unmistakable  symptoms  of  suppressed  applause.  After  prayer 
the  meeting  was  thrown  open.  Immediately  Jeremiah  Clements 
of  Buffalo,  the  oldest  delegate  present,  arose  and  said:  'Mr. 
President,  I  came  to  this  convention  with  grave  misgivings. 
I  thought  that  three  hundred  young  men,  gathered  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  quick-tempered  and  hot-headed,  would 
certainly  quarrel  and  the  convention  would  break  up  in  a  row, 
but  when  the  first  vice-president  from  Charleston,  S.  C,  gave 
out  a  hymn  and  read  a  chapter,  and  in  the  evening  of  the  same 
day  the  president  of  the  convention,  residing  in  Cincinnati,  O., 
a  thousand  miles  away,  not  knowing  what  had  been  done  be- 
fore his  arrival,  gave  out  the  same  hymn  and  read  the  same 
chapter,  I  saw  that  my  fears  were  groundless,  and  that  we 
were  of  one  heart.  I  predict  a  harmonious  and  successful 
convention.'  " 

Of  the  following  convention  at  Richmond  in  1857, 
one  of  the  surviving  delegates,  Mr.  Samuel  Lowry, 
writes:  "It  was  a  meeting  second  in  importance 
only  to  the  first  at  Buffalo.  The  brethren  who  wel- 
comed that  convention  formed  as  fine  a  body  of 
Christian  young  men  as  I  have  ever  met,  and  their 
constant  and  faithful  support  of  the  general  work 
during  the  Confederation  period  was  invaluable." 

26 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

(3)  Conception  of  Association  Work — Fifth  and 
Sixth  Conventions 

Work  for  young  men  during  this  period  was  an 
emphasized  part  of  association  effort,  but  federation 
sentiment  was  not  yet  favorable  to  concentration 
upon  work  for  young  men  exclusively.  It  stood  for 
a  work  by  young  men,  banded  together  interdenomi- 
nationally.  The  association  agencies  reported  to  the 
convention  at  Buffalo,  as  we  have  enumerated,  were 
twofold  :  First  and  of  first  emphasis,  the  reading 
and  social  rooms,  the  library,  the  literary  society 
and  lyceum  or  lecture  course,  the  prayer  meeting 
and  the  Bible  class — all  agencies  of  work  for  young 
men.  But,  also,  union  Sunday-schools  were  vigor- 
ously advocated  by  the  Cincinnati  and  other  dele- 
gates and  heartily  approved  by  this  and  succeeding 
conventions,  which  agreed  in  authorizing  city  mis- 
sion work,  religious  tract  distribution,  general  evan- 
gelistic, tent  and  other  outdoor  meetings,  neighbor- 
hood and  district  evangelization,  and  philanthropic 
work. 

At  the  convention  of  1858  in  Charleston  during 
the  year  of  the  great  revival,  in  the  warm  spiritual 
atmosphere  of  the  sessions,  the  question,  "What  is 
the  true  sphere  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations ?"  was  carefully  discussed.  After  long  de- 
bate the  answer  was  given  :  ' '  The  formation  and 
development  of  Christian  character  in  young  men. " 

At  the  Troy  convention,  1859,  occurred  a  more 
agitating  discussion  of  the  subject.     This  convention 

27 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

has  been  termed  by  Mr.  Langdon  "the  climax  of 
the  Confederation  period."  It  was  more  numer- 
ously attended  than  any  other,  having  three  times 
as  many  delegates  as  its  predecessor.  At  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  Central  Committee  certain  revised 
articles  of  confederation  were  adopted,  incorporating 
the  basis  adopted  by  the  World's  Conference  at 
Paris  in  1855,  and  already  approved  by  the  conven- 
tions of  1856  and  1857.  At  the  same  time  "the 
wisdom  and  efficiency  of  the  present  system  of 
confederation "  was  reaffirmed,  with  the  declara- 
tion "that  especial  care  should  be  taken  to  preserve 
inviolate  the  principles  and  essential  form  of  the 
original  organization  "  effected  at  Buffalo  in  1854. 

But  the  critical  discussion  related  to  the  true 
sphere  and  object  of  the  association.  The  topic  was 
presented  in  an  elaborate  paper  by  the  Confedera- 
tion founder  and  leader,  William  Chauncy  Lang- 
don. He  contended  that  the  association  was  "an 
institution  for  the  formation  and  development  in 
young  men  of  Christian  character  and  Christian  ac- 
tivity," and  also  that  "no  association  has  any  con- 
stitutional right  to  pursue  any  course  whatever  con- 
trary to  the  denominational  principles  of  any  one  of 
the  ecclesiastical  organizations  which  we  represent," 
and  "as  certain  of  these  organizations  hold  to  the 
exclusive  right  of  a  divinely  organized  church  of 
Christ  solely  to  undertake  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel,  therefore  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation is  not  an  institution  for  the  general  propaga- 
tion of  the  gospel,  but  is  a  function  of  the  church, 

28 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

under  the  church's  entire  control  and  incapable  of 
entering  upon  any  field  of  labor  which  may  not  be 
also  the  common  field  of  each  and  every  denomina- 
tion in  the  association.  Only  such  association  agen- 
cies are  legitimate  as  are  consistent  with  the  princi- 
ples of  any  of  our  denominations  and  which  are  de- 
signed to  bring  young  men  under  the  influence  and 
into  the  communion  of  the  church  of  Christ  and  to 
develop  their  usefulness  in  the  church." 

Mr.  Langdon,  while  favoring  a  concentration  of 
association  effort  upon  young  men,  seems  also  to 
have  become  at  this  time  one  of  those  high  church- 
men who  in  every  denomination  find  it  impossible 
to  justify  aggressive  religious  work  by  the  associa- 
tion or  by  any  agency  which  is  not  a  denominational 
church.  There  was  almost  unanimous  disapproval 
of  the  position  he  took,  and  the  following  resolution 
was  adopted  without  dissent  save  from  him  : 

' '  Resolved,  That  while  we  should  work  specially 
on  behalf  of  young  men,  for  the  sake  of  our  associa- 
tions as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  our  Master's  cause, 
we  should  be  ready  to  enter  upon  any  work  which 
He  shall  open  before  us."  By  "any  work"  the 
association  men  of  that  day  understood  mission, 
Sunday-school  and  general  evangelistic  work  and 
various  forms  of  philanthropic  endeavor — all  of 
which  were  then  part  of  the  activity  of  the  associa- 
tions. 

At  the  close  of  this  discussion  an  unnoticed  but 
what  is  now  to  us  a  very  interesting  incident 
occurred.     Mr.  Langdon,  the  young  father  of  the  fed- 

29 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

eration,  who  had  been  for  five  years  and  six  conven- 
tions among  its  foremost  leaders,  was  closing  his 
connection  with  the  brotherhood  after  an  exciting 
discussion.  In  this  he  had  stood  alone  in  disagree- 
ment with  all  his  associates,  who  nevertheless  were 
under  the  spell  of  that  respect  and  love  for  him 
which  was  justly  called  forth  by  his  invaluable  ser- 
vice to  the  whole  brotherhood.  The  discussion  had 
occurred  in  the  committee  of  the  whole.  At  its 
close,  one  of  the  younger  delegates — a  lawyer  from 
New  York — rose,  and,  to  use  the  words  of  the  con- 
vention report,  ''after  brief  remarks,  complimen- 
tary to  Brother  Langdon,  and  generally  conciliatory, 
moved  that  the  committee  rise  and  report  all  reso- 
lutions to  the  convention." 

That  young  delegate,  who  forty-five  years  ago 
gracefully  expressed  fitting  appreciation  of  the 
father  of  association  federation,  was  Cephas  Brainerd, 
who  in  the  succeeding  period  of  association  history 
as  chairman  for  twenty-five  years  (1867-1882)  of 
the  International  Committee,  was  to  prove  himself 
a  wiser  and  greater  leader  in  federation  work  and 
to  awaken  toward  himself  such  esteem  and  love 
from  the  whole  association  brotherhood  as  he  him- 
self there  expressed  for  his  distinguished  prede- 
cessor. 

These  two  young  men,  as  they  stood  on  the  floor 
of  the  convention  of  1859,  were  fitting  representa- 
tives of  the  group  of  federation  leaders,  interna- 
tional, state  and  provincial,  to  whom  the  brother- 
hood  on  this  continent  owes  so  much   of   its  own 

30 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

leadership  among  the  associations  of   all  countries 
and  continents. 

Mr.  Langdon  now  withdrew  from  connection  with 
the  associations.  He  was  already  an  ordained  cler- 
gyman of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  and  in 
that  year  (1859),  he  went  to  Italy  for  prolonged  resi- 
dence and  labor  in  the  interests  of  his  church. 
After  his  return,  nearly  thirty  years  later,  as  Rev. 
Dr.  Langdon,  he  came  into  brotherly  intercourse 
with  the  International  Committee  and  with  the  donor 
and  custodian  of  its  Historical  Library,  Jacob  T. 
Bowne.  At  Mr.  Bowne's  request,  as  one  of  the  in- 
structors of  the  Secretarial  Training  School  at 
Springfield,  Mass. ,  he  prepared  and  delivered  to  the 
students  of  the  school  in  1887  his  interesting  story  of 
the  early  years  of  the  Confederation,  and  of  his  own 
connection  with  its  origin  and  development*  This 
story  was  published  in  the  Year  Book  of  1888.  He 
also  gave  to  the  Historical  Library  the  valuable 
pamphlets  and  correspondence  in  his  possession  re- 
lating to  the  first  period  of  association  history.  In 
1895  he  accepted  the  invitation  of  the  committee  to 
attend  the  international  convention  of  that  year  in 
Springfield,  Mass.,  and  received  a  hearty  greeting 
and  welcome  at  its  opening  session.  Not  long  after 
this  event  he  died.  His  work  of  federation  abides 
as  both  a  tribute  and  a  monument,  testifying  in  its 
ever  increasing  usefulness  to  the  undying  value  of 
the  service   rendered  fifty  years  ago  by  a  man  of 


♦Extended  extracts  from  this  paper  are  given  in  the  Supplement. 

31 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

twenty-two  to  the  whole  association  brotherhood  in 
every  land  and  for  all  time. 

(4)  The  Agencies  of  American  Federation 

a.  During  the  first  period  two  strong  agencies 
of  federation  were  created.  The  first  was  the  con- 
vention. Its  annual  meetings  were  the  only  stated 
meetings  of  association  representatives  then  held. 
It  proved  an  effective  bond  of  union,  associating  a 
group  of  strong  leaders,  some  of  whom  long  sur- 
vived that  period  and  a  few  are  still  living. 

b.  The  second  strong  federation  agency  con- 
sisted of  the  seven  successive  Central  Committees 
of  this  convention,  located  in  turn  in  the  following 
six  cities:  (1)  Washington,  1854-55;  (2)  Cincinnati, 
1855-57;  (3)  Buffalo,  1857-59;  (4)  Richmond,  1859-60; 
(5)  Philadelphia,  1860-64:  (6)  Boston,  1864-65,  and  (7) 
a  second  time  in  Philadelphia,  1865-66.  The  terms 
of  service  of  these  Committees  were  too  brief  to 
allow  of  their  accumulating  experience  and  becom- 
ing expert  as  agencies  of  federation.  Each  Com- 
mittee realized  these  limitations.  But  each  was  able 
to  make  some  effective  use  of  correspondence,  and 
several  of  a  periodical  which  reinforced  correspond- 
ence in  promoting  useful  and  suggestive  intercourse. 

The  visitation  which  Committee  members  could 
accomplish  was  very  limited.  No  visiting  or  office 
secretary  was  employed. 

(5)  World  Federation  Fostered 

But  neither  correspondence  nor  visitation  were 
confined  to  the  American  continent.     Promptly  in 

32 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

this  early  period,  association  leaders  recognized  that 
they  belonged  to  a  world  brotherhood.  Indeed,  the 
Confederation  Committee  appears  to  have  accom- 
plished more  visitation  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
than  in  North  America. 

a.  In  1855,  the  year  following  the  first  Ameri- 
can convention,  a  strong  delegation,  including 
George  H.  Stuart  and  Abel  Stevens,  represented  the 
North  American  associations  at  the  first  General  or 
World's  Conference  in  Paris,  and  took  a  prominent 
part  in  framing  and  adopting  the  Paris  basis,  which 
continues  to  be  the  basis  and  platform  of  the  world 
brotherhood.  At  the  other  World's  Conferences  of 
1855,  1858,  1862  and  1865,  the  American  associations 
were  also  represented.  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Gladstone 
of  London,  a  strong  leader  in  the  parent  associa- 
tion, was  very  cordially  welcomed  to  the  North 
American  convention  of  1856,  at  Montreal. 

b.  Richard  C.  McCormick,  one  of  the  vice  presi- 
dents of  the  New  York  association,  made  an  exten- 
sive tour  in  1854,  visiting  associations  in  all  parts  of 
Great  Britain  and  in  France,  Italy,  Switzerland  and 
Syria.  He  was  the  first  representative  in  these 
countries  of  the  American  associations.  Every- 
where he  was  hospitably  received  and  greatly 
promoted  useful  intercourse  between  association 
workers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Upon  his 
return,  he  made  a  full  report  of  his  tour. 

Mr.  Langdon  preceded,  accompanied  and  followed 
Mr.  McCormick's  tour  by  extensive  foreign  corre- 
spondence.    He  proposed  a  carefully  arranged  sys- 

33 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

tern  of  international  correspondence  and  the  proposal 
was  approved  and  recommended  by  the  first  World's 
Conference  in  Paris.  Already  his  own  correspon- 
dence had  been  a  strong  factor  in  promoting  the  call 
of  that  conference  in  1855,  and  it  was  at  that  early 
period  extensive  enough  to  enable  him  also  to  pre- 
pare and  submit  to  the  same  conference  a  very 
interesting  report  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations not  only  in  North  America  but  throughout 
the  world,  the  fullest  statement  of  the  kind  which 
up  to  that  time  had  been  published.  He  continued 
to  be  the  foreign  secretary  of  the  Central  Committee 
until  the  close  of  his  connection  with  the  work  in 
1859. 

The  first  six  months  of  1857  Mr.  Langdon  spent 
in  a  tour  of  the  European  associations,  receiving 
hearty  welcome  in  Great  Britain,  France,  Holland, 
Germany  and  Switzerland.  To  his  presentation  of 
the  methods  and  advantages  of  federation  as  realized 
by  associations  on  this  continent,  can  be  traced  the 
origin  and  call  of  the  first  conference  of  British 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  held  at  Leeds* 
in  September,  1858.  This  resulted  later,  in  a  gen- 
eral union  of  the  British  associations  consummated 
in  a  conference  at  London  in  July,  1859.  This  con- 
ference W.  H.  Neff  attended  during  a  European 
tour,  of  which  he  gives  the  following  account : — 

"In  1859  I  visited  Europe  as  the  representative  of  the  Cen- 
tral Committee.  I  was  kindly  welcomed  in  Chester.  In  Lon- 
don, I  was  hospitably  received  by  Thomas  H.  Gladstone  and 
William    Ferguson,    whom   I    had    entertained    in    Cincinnati. 

34 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

W.  Edwyn  Shipton,  the  accomplished  secretary  of  the  London 
association,  took  me  to  call  upon  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, 
whom  I  afterwards  met  at  the  annual  banquet  of  the  London 
association,  of  which  he  was  the  honorary  president.  I  met 
Mr.  (now  Sir)  George  Williams,  the  founder  of  the  London 
association,  and  his  employer,  Mr.  Hitchcock,  and  spent  a 
pleasant  evening  in  company  with  Rev.  James  Hamilton.  In 
Geneva,  I  had  a  delightful  afternoon  with  Henri  Dunant,  a 
pioneer  in  the  continental  work  of  the  associations  and  after- 
wards the  founder  of  the  Red  Cross.  On  my  return,  I  re- 
ported to  the  Central  Committee  what  I  had  seen  and  heard." 

(6)     The  Civil  War  Episode,  1861-65 

a.  The  Civil  War  in  the  United  States  occasioned 
a  remarkable  episode  in  association  activity  and  the 
work  of  federation  organized  was  confined  neces- 
sarily within  the  limits  of  the  field  of  conflict.  The 
breaking  out  of  the  war  in  April,  1861,  made  it  im- 
practicable for  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Con- 
federation, resident  in  Philadelphia,  to  call  during 
that  year  or  the  next  the  usual  convention,  and  the 
same  absorbing  event  suspended  the  home  activities 
of  most  of  the  associations  in  the  United  States. 
But  a  new  field  of  engrossing  effort  was  opened. 
Within  a  month  after  the  war  began,  the  association 
in  New  York  City  appointed  an  army  committee, 
which  began  to  labor  at  once  among  the  soldiers  in 
the  numerous  camps  near  that  metropolis.  Devo- 
tional meetings  were  held  in  camp  and  tent.  A 
pocket  edition  of  a  Soldiers'  Hymn  Book  was  widely 
circulated.  Of  twenty-two  camps  visited,  only  four 
had  chaplains.     News  of  the  first  battle  drew  at  once 

35 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

two  members  of  the  New  York  committee  to  the 
scene  of  suffering. 

Urgent  need  was  widely  felt  of  cooperation  on  the 
largest  scale  by  associations  and  the  Christian  pub- 
lic in  the  United  States.  At  the  suggestion  of  the 
New  York  association,  the  Central  Committee  called 
a  convention  of  delegates  to  meet  in  that  city. 
The  extraordinary  nature  of  the  emergency  made 
this  a  sectional  or  district,  not  an  international  meet- 
ing, and  it  is,  therefore,  not  numbered  in  the  official 
list  of  the  North  American  conventions.  Forty-two 
delegates  from  fifteen  associations  came  together 
and  resolved  to  take  active  measures  to  promote  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  soldiers  and  sailors 
in  the  army  and  navy  of  the  Union.  To  this  end 
the  convention  appointed  a  new  executive  agent  to 
act  for  and  with  not  only  the  associations  but  the 
Christian  churches  and  communities  of  the  section 
of  the  continent  represented  by  the  delegates.  To 
this  agent  it  gave  the  name  of  "  The  United  States 
Christian  Commission"  and  instructed  it  to  enlist  as 
far  as  possible  the  entire  Christian  public  in  the  wide 
and  important  service  to  be  rendered.  The  Com- 
mission thus  appointed  consisted  of  twelve  gentle- 
men from  eight  leading  cities.  Its  chairman  was 
George  H.  Stuart  of  Philadelphia,  the  president  of 
this  convention  and  the  chairman  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee which  had  called  it  together.  The  Commis- 
sion proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  beneficent  agen- 
cies ever  devised  to  alleviate  the  miseries  of  war. 
It  communicated   with   associations   through   their 

36 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

army  committees  and  cooperated  with  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission  in  its  medical  and  hos- 
pital work.  It  served  as  the  medium  by  which 
Christian  homes,  churches  and  communities  minis- 
tered spiritual  mingled  with  material  comfort  to  the 
Union  soldiers  in  field  and  hospital.  During  the 
war  the  Commission  received  and  distributed  volun- 
tary contributions  in  the  shape  of  stores  worth  nearly 
three  millions  of  dollars.  Two  and  a  half  million 
dollars  in  money  was  received  and  expended.  It 
sent  out  as  helpers,  both  in  hospital  and  gospel  work, 
a  multitude  of  Christian  men  and  women,  including 
many  pastors,  for  such  periods  of  time  as  they  could 
volunteer  their  services.  Among  them  were  D.  L. 
Moody  and  George  A.  Hall  and  many  other  asso- 
ciation workers,  who  began  during  the  war  a  fellow- 
ship in  Christian  service  which  they  continued  for 
many  years  afterward  in  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  local,  state  and  international. 

The  work  of  the  Christian  Commission  belonged 
distinctively  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion only  in  its  origin.  Every  assistance  in  their 
power  associations  rendered  through  their  army 
committees.  But  they  were  still  a  feeble  brother- 
hood, without  permanent  property  and  employed 
officers.  Their  Central  Committee  had  not  yet  se- 
cured expert  salaried  officers  and  become  such  a 
strong  agency  of  supervision  as  the  brotherhood  pos- 
sessed in  its  International  Committee  in  1898, 
when  the  Spanish-American  war  broke  out,  and  an 
army  and  navy  department  with  expert  secretaries, 

37 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

international,  state  and  local,  was  immediately  or- 
ganized, commanding  the  confidence  of  the  national 
authorities,  and  speedily  reaching  with  an  effective 
association  ministry  the  needs  of  both  soldiers  and 
sailors  in  camp  and  field,  on  shipboard  and  at  naval 
station. 

The  Christian  Commission  of  1861-65,  however, 
commanded  generous  popular  sympathy  and  sup- 
port. The  magnitude  of  its  work  is  indicated  in  the 
following  summary  statement : 

Delegates  commissioned  and  sent  out 4,859 

Cash  expended $2,513, 741 

Value  of  stores  donated  and  distributed 2,839,445 

Value   of   Bible   reading   matter    donated   and  dis- 
tributed        299, 576 

Number  of  Bibles  and  parts  of  Bibles  distributed 1,466,748 

Number  of  bound  books  distributed 296,816 

Number  of  hymn  books  distributed 1,370,953 

Number  of  papers,  magazines,  etc.,  distributed 19,621,103 

Number  of  pages  of  tracts  distributed 39, 104,243 

Number    of    knapsack    books,    in     flexible    covers, 

distributed 8,308,052 

Number  of  sermons  preached  by  delegates 58,308 

Number  of  prayer  meetings  held  by  delegates 77,744 

During  these  years  of  war,  some  of  the  associa- 
tions in  the  South,  notably  the  society  at  Richmond, 
were  individually  active  in  Christian  work  among 
the  soldiers  of  the  confederate  army,  but  no  general 
organization  of  this  work  was  attempted,  although  a 
number  of  useful  regimental  associations  were 
formed. 

38 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

b.  During  this  war  period  two  regular  interna- 
tional conventions  were  held.  The  first  was  the 
ninth  in  order  since  the  Buffalo  convention  of  1854. 
It  met  in  Chicago,  June  4-7,  1863,  George  H.  Stuart 
of  Philadelphia,  chairman  of  the  Commission,  pre- 
siding. Thirty  associations  were  represented.  This 
convention  refused  to  recognize  the  qualifications  for 
membership  in  it  established  by  the  Confederation 
and  the  rule  giving  to  each  association  equality  in  re- 
presentation with  every  other.  This  ended  the  life 
of  the  Confederation.  The  convention  of  1864  was 
held  in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  Joseph  A.  Pond  of 
Boston,  presiding.  Twenty-eight  associations  were 
represented  by  136  delegates.  These  meetings  were 
full  of  Christian  enthusiasm,  and  from  all  the  reports 
given  it  appeared  that  the  main  activity  of  the  so- 
cieties represented  was  being  absorbed  in  the  army 
and  commission  work.  In  both  conventions  earnest 
appeals  were  made  in  advocacy  of  that  distinctive 
and  exclusive  work  for  young  men,  the  promise  and 
usefulness  of  which  were  already  clearly  discerned 
by  many  association  leaders. 


39 


CHAPTER  IV.     THE    SECOND    PERIOD    OF 
FEDERATION,   1866-1883. 

The  Convention  of  New  Departures,  1866.  Con- 
centration on  Work  for  Young  Men.  The 
First  Term  of  the  International  Committee; 
Its  Chairman,  Secretarial  Member  and  First 
Agent.  The  Career  of  H.  Thane  Miller.  Es- 
tablishment of  State  and  Provincial  Conven- 
tions. The  Second  to  the  Sixth  Terms  of  the 
Committee.  Its  General  Secretary.  The  Evan- 
gelical Test  Adopted.  William  E.  Dodge, 
President  of  the  Convention  of  1869.  The  First 
Buildings  and  Secretaries.  Two  Phases  of 
Local,  State  and  Provincial  Work.  Visitation 
in  the  South.  General  Secretaries'  Confer- 
ences and  Secretarial  Training.  Interna- 
tional German-Speaking,  Office,  Traveling, 
Negro,  Student  and  Railroad  Secretaries.  D. 
L.  Moody.  Growth  of  State,  Provincial,  Sec- 
retarial and  Building  Movements.  World 
Federation  and  Conferences.  Associations 
Started  in  Foreign  Mission  Lands. 

(1)      The  Convention  of  1866 

The  second  period  of  federation  opens  with  the 
convention  of  1866  at  Albany,  which  may  be  justly 
called  the  convention  of  new  departures — depar- 
tures, however,  which  were  wisely  based  on  the  ex- 
perimentation of  its  predecessors. 

40 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

a.  Concentration  on  work  for  young  men. 

Already  in  the  conventions  of  1863  and  1864,  con- 
centration upon  work  by  young  men  for  young  men 
exclusively  had  been  vigorously  advocated  by  Rev- 
erend, now  Bishop,  Henry  C.  Potter  and  Cephas 
Brainerd.  Again  in  1865  and  in  this  convention  of 
1866  it  was  advocated  so  effectively  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mr.  Brainerd  and  Mr.  McBurney,  who  had 
now  been  for  four  years  the  employed  executive  of 
the  New  York  association,  that  methods  outside  of 
this  distinctive  work  for  young  men  began  to  lose 
some  of  the  hold  which  they  had  upon  the  associa- 
tions. 

b.  More  conventions  established. 

Another  new  departure  was  due  to  the  high  valua- 
tion put  upon  the  convention  and  what  it  had 
already  accomplished  in  its  ten  annual  meetings. 
This  valuation  led  to  a  desire  to  multiply  conven- 
tion influence  by  increasing  the  number  of  such 
delegated  meetings.  If  all  the  associations  in  all 
parts  of  the  continent  were  to  benefit  by  this  agency, 
a  single  annual  meeting  was  inadequate.  There- 
fore, the  convention's  new  Committee  was  instructed 
not  only  to  call  annually  the  international  conven- 
tion and  improve  its  program,  but  also  to  call, 
through  its  corresponding  members  in  each  state 
and  province,  state  and  provincial  conventions, — 
a  new  departure  destined  to  greatly  promote  effect- 
ive federation  supervision. 

c.  Convention  Committee  localized  for  three 
years. 

41 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

A  second  approved  federation  agency  had  been 
the  seven  successive  Central  Committees  of  the  con- 
vention. The  last  of  these  called  and  reported  to 
this  convention  of  1866.  Its  headquarters  were  in 
Philadelphia,  which  had  been  the  residence  of  a 
Central  Committee  for  a  longer  period  than  any 
other  city.  On  the  basis  of  its  own  experience  and 
that  of  its  six  predecessors,  the  Philadelphia  Com- 
mittee urged  in  its  report  that  betterment  of  the 
Committee's  work  would  be  secured  by  a  new  de- 
parture in  locating  its  headquarters  in  one  city  for 
at  least  five  years.  In  response  to  this  recommenda- 
tion, the  Albany  convention  conservatively  estab- 
lished the  Committee  for  only  three  years  (1866-1869) 
in  New  York  City,  where  it  had  never  yet  been 
located,  and  instructed  it  to  call  state  and  provincial 
conventions  through  its  corresponding  members,  to 
publish  a  quarterly  magazine,  and  to  invite  the  as- 
sociations to  observe  the  first  Lord's  day  in  No- 
vember as  a  day  of  special  prayer  for  young  men 
and  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations.  After  an 
experience  of  two  years  the  second  Lord's  day  in 
November  was  substituted  for  the  first. 

(2)  First  Term  of  the  International  Committee — 
i866-n 


This  appointment  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a 
Committee  which,  from  time  to  time  enlarged,  has 
continued  in  office  ever  since.  During  its  first 
triennial  period  it  consisted  of  five  members — all 
resident  in  New  York  City — with  a  corresponding 

42 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

member,  as  had  been  true  of  its  predecessors  since 
1863,  in  each  state  and  province.  It  continued 
correspondence  and  issued  as  a  periodical  T/ie 
Quarterly,  containing  association  intelligence  and 
discussion. 

a.  The  Chairman. 

In  its  second  year  Cephas  Brainerd  was  chosen 
chairman,  and  continued  for  twenty-five  years  to 
render  invaluable  service  in  that  office.  Of  this 
service  R.  R.  McBurney,  associated  with  him  on 
the  Committee  during  the  entire  quarter  century, 
wrote:  "In  the  beginning  and  when  it  was  un- 
popular, he  grasped  the  basal  idea  of  association 
work  as  a  work  by  young  men  for  young  men,  and 
clung  to  it  tenaciously.  Every  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee to  the  conventions,  during  his  chairmanship, 
was  written  by  him.  For  five  years,  until  1872,  he 
conducted  the  entire  correspondence,  and  until  his 
resignation,  twenty  years  later,  it  was  under  his 
careful  supervision.  The  work  of  the  international 
secretaries  was  prosecuted  under  his  direction. 
This  remarkable  unsalaried  service  for  so  many 
years,  by  one  thoroughly  qualified  leader,  was  of 
incalculable  benefit  to  the  work  for  Christ  amonof 
young  men  in  this  and  other  lands." 

b.  The  Secretarial  Member. 

The  service  of  Mr.  McBurney  himself  upon  the 
Committee  from  1866  until  his  death  in  1898  is 
worthy  of  special  mention.  It  was  a  service  ren- 
dered vigilantly  and  industriously  by  one  who,  be- 
ginning in  1862,  was  for  thirty-six  years  secretary 

43 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

in  New  York  City  of  the  largest  and  strongest  of 
the  North  American  associations,  and  who  during 
all  this  period  was  himself  the  most  expert,  success- 
ful and  influential  of  association  secretaries  on  this 
continent.* 

c.     The  first  Employed  Agent. 

In  its  third  year  (1868-69)  the  Committee,  as  in- 
structed by  the  convention  of  1868,  secured  its  first 
employed  agent,  selecting  for  the  office  Robert 
Weidensall,  still  its  honored  senior  secretary.     His 

*Mr.  McBurney  continued  as  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the 
Committee  until  1895,  serving  effectively  on  its  subcommittees  and  for 
tie  last  three  years  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  foreign  work. 
His  resignation  was  accepted  with  the  greater  reluctance  because  at  the 
time  of  it— as  his  biographer,  Dr.  Doggett,  says — he  seriously  ques- 
tioned the  wisdom  of  the  Committee  in  increasing  so  steadily  the  num- 
ber of  its  secretaries  and  the  size  of  its  budget.  "  Two  divergent  theo- 
ries were  held,"  writes  Dr.  Doggett;  "one  that  the  chief  agency  of 
supervision  ought  to  be  the  State  Committees;  the  other,  as  Mr.  Mc- 
Burney described  it,  held  that  the  more  state  work  is  developed  the 
more  need  there  will  be  for  the  international  work.  Mr.  McBurney 
strongly  opposed  the  latter  view."  "But,"  Dr.  Doggett  adds,  "he  ac- 
cepted a  position  as  a  member  of  the  advisory  section  of  the  Committee 
and  continued  in  this  relation  until  his  death."  Also  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing his  resignation,  Mr.  McBurney  attended  the  annual  conference 
of  all  the  international  secretaries.  For  three  days  he  listened  to  the 
reports  submitted  in  turn  by  each  member  of  the  force.  He  participated 
in  the  discussions.  "  At  the  close  of  the  conference  he  expressed  his 
enthusiastic  appreciation  of  the  work  the  Committee  was  doing."  On 
this  occasion  he  confessed  to  the  writer  the  disappearance  of  his  feeling 
of  solicitude  about  the  expansion  of  the  work.  And  at  the  next  in- 
ternational convention  (1897),  the  last  one  he  attended,  in  the  year  before 
he  died,  when  it  was  proposed  to  expand  the  international  work  still 
further  by  creating  a  new  department  and  adding  a  Bible  secretary,  he 
not  only  advocated  this  new  departure,  but  pledged  a  personal  contri- 
bution of  $250  toward  the  salary  of  the  new  secretary.  He  was  the  first 
to  pay  his  subscription,  though  the  office  was  not  filled  until  after  his 
death.  Thus  by  his  last  subscription  to  the  international  work  he  advo- 
cated its  expansion  as  no  menace  to  the  best  interests  and  welfare  of 
that  work  for  young  men  in  the  love  and  service  of  which  he  lived,  la- 
bored and  died. 

44 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

first  field  of  visitation  was  not  in  the  East  or  South 
or  in  the  Central  West,  but  in  the  territory  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  in  towns  springing  up  along  the 
line  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  then  in  course  of 
construction.  He  was  at  first  known  as  "  the  west- 
ern agent"  of  the  Committee. 

d.  State  and  Provincial  Conventions. 

In  its  first  year  (1866-67)  the  Committee  called 
through  its  corresponding  members  five  state  con- 
ventions, in  its  second  year  ten  and  in  its  third  year 
fifteen  state  aud  provincial  conventions.  Each  of 
these  followed  as  far  as  practicable  the  procedure  of 
the  international.  At  each  of  them  the  Committee 
was  represented  by  its  corresponding  member  and 
at  many  by  some  other  members  or  representatives. 
These  meetings  fulfilled  expectation  in  multiplying 
the  benefits  of  federation  intercourse. 

e.  The  Career  of  H.  Thane  Miller. 

During  this  period  the  Committee  called  together 
the  conventions  of  1867,  1868  and  1869 — meetings 
which,  under  its  leadership,  steadily  improved  in  pro- 
gram, attendance  and  discussion.  One  important 
factor  in  this  improvement  was  the  service  as  presi- 
dent in  1866,  1867  and  1868,  of  H.  Thane  Miller  of 
Cincinnati.  He  was  not  only  president  of  these  three 
critical  meetings  and  of  the  convention  of  1872, 
making  such  a  record  as  to  win  affectionate  respect 
and  confidence  throughout  the  continent,  but  he 
came  to  all  succeeding  conventions  until  his  death  in 
1898,  receiving  cordial  welcome  to  the  platform  from 
his  presidential  successors  and  equally  from  the  dele- 

45 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

gates.  During  these  thirty  years,  he  was  also  a 
familiar  figure  and  leader  on  the  platform  of  state 
and  provincial  conventions  and  of  city  associations, 
North,  South,  East  and  West.  At  one  Canadian  con- 
vention his  election  as  president  was  insisted  upon. 
Federation  work  in  all  its  phases,  international,  state 
and  provincial,  had  no  other  convention  friend  and 
promoter  so  efficient.  With  every  phase  of  associa- 
tion effort  he  became  familiar.  With  each  he  was 
sympathetic.  In  the  promotion  of  each  he  was 
skillful  and  influential. 

(3)  Second  and  Third  Terms  of  the  International 
Committee,  1869-1875 

The  Committee  was  continued  for  its  second  and 
third  terms  of  three  years  each  by  the  conventions  of 
1869  and  1872.  It  was  instructed  to  secure  in  addi- 
tion to  Mr.  Weidensall  a  second  employed  agent  to 
act  as  secretary  and  editor. 

a.  The  second  Employed  Agent. 

This  officer  was  secured,  December,  1869,  in  the 
person  of  the  Committee's  present  general  secretary, 
who  for  the  first  two  years  was  almost  wholly  occu- 
pied in  editing  the  monthly  periodical  of  the  Com- 
mittee, then  known  as  The  Association  Monthly. 

b.  The  Evangelical  Test  Adopted. 

The  Portland  convention,  carefully  disclaiming 
any  "  authority  or  control  over  the  affairs  of  associa- 
tions" already  organized,  conditioned  representation 
in  the  convention  of  associations  which  should  be  or- 
ganized after  that  date  (July,  1869)  upon  their  adopt - 

46 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ing  the  evangelical  test  of  active  membership, — a 
test  already  widely  prevailing.  The  associations  in 
convention  assembled  thus  prescribed  for  associa- 
tions yet  to  be  organized  a  condition  relating  to  their 
voting  membership  upon  which  alone  they  could  en- 
joy full  fellowship  in  the  brotherhood.  The  corre- 
spondence of  the  Committee  bears  witness  to  the 
strong  influence  of  the  convention  in  gradually  in- 
ducing the  general  adoption  of  this  rule  of  member- 
ship, both  by  associations  organized  before,  and  by 
those  organized  after  1869.  The  act  of  the  conven- 
tion, followed  up  by  the  influence  of  its  agency  of 
supervision,  thus  helped  to  shape  a  fundamental 
feature  in  the  constitutions  of  the  local  associations. 
Each  association,  however,  has  continued  free  and 
independent  in  its  relation  to  the  test.  Some  in  the 
exercise  of  their  freedom  have  given  it  up  and  with- 
drawn from  the  brotherhood,  and  later  by  re-adopt- 
ing it  have  resumed  full  fellowship.  The  present 
practical  unanimity  is  the  result  of  the  free  action  of 
the  local  associations. 

The  president  of  the  convention  of  1869  was 
William  E.  Dodge,  to  whom  as  president  of  the  New 
York  City  association,  that  society  was  already  in- 
debted for  a  leadership  which  was  then  securing  for 
it  the  first  distinctive  association  building.  En- 
grossing attention  to  the  city  organization  had  for- 
bidden his  acceptance  of  membership  on  the  Inter- 
national Committee.  But  from  the  beginning  of  its 
work,  and  until  his  death  thirty-six  years  later,  he 
stood  in  an  influential  advisory  relation  to  this  parent 

47 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

federation  work.  During  all  its  early,  most  difficult 
financial  years  he  made  the  largest  stated  contribution 
to  the  Committee's  treasury,  steadily  increasing  this 
annual  gift  until  the  end  of  his  life  and  giving  also 
one  tenth  of  its  Jubilee  fund.  In  every  difficult 
financial  emergency  he  was  ready  with  additional 
help.  His  sympathy  was  also  made  effective  by 
words  fitly  spoken  at  critical  times,  when  such 
words  from  him  carried  unusual  weight  and  in- 
fluence. So  that  it  is  impossible  to  express  the  value 
of  his  generous  gifts,  his  wise  counsel  and  that  un- 
failing brotherly  sympathy  which  had  in  it  more  of 
helpfulness  than  comes  from  words  of  commenda- 
tion, warning  and  counsel.  He  was  again  chosen 
president  of  the  Jubilee  Convention  which  met  in 
Boston  in  1901. 

c.  The  first  Association  Buildings  and  the  Work 
and  Secretaries  in  them. 

In  1869  the  New  York  City  association  entered  its 
first  building,  which  was  also  the  first  genuine  asso- 
ciation building  ever  specially  erected  to  accommo- 
date the  fourfold  work,  social,  physical,  educational 
and  spiritual.  The  Washington  association  at  this 
time  also  secured  a  building,  commodious,  but  less 
complete  in  its  appointments.  In  these  buildings, 
Robert  R.  McBurney  and  George  A.  Hall,  as  secreta- 
ries of  growing  qualification,  began  to  erect  that 
standard  of  secretarial  efficiency  to  which  their  asso- 
ciates in  other  cities  gradually  conformed  as  associa- 
tions with  secretaries  multiplied. 

In  the  New  York  building,  on  its  completion  in 

48 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

December,  1869,  the  International  Committee  occu- 
pied as  its  first  office  a  room  granted  to  it  by  the  New 
York  association.  The  Committee  continued  to  oc- 
cupy it  free  of  rent  for  eighteen  years. 

In  other  cities  buildings  and  rooms  were  secured 
more  adapted  to  general  evangelistic  uses  than  to 
distinctive  work  for  young  men.  A  visit  to  such  a 
building  is  thus  described  by  the  general  secretary 
of  the  International  Committee : 

"In  the  year  1870,  soon  after  the  New  York  building  had 
been  dedicated,  I  visited  Chicago  and  as  a  beginner  in  asso- 
ciation work  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  contrast  between 
the  building  which  I  had  just  left  and  the  Chicago  building, 
which  in  its  very  large  hall  had  ample  provision  for  the  evan- 
gelistic services,  held  there  every  Sunday.  But  there  was 
comparatively  little  accommodation  in  this  ample  building  for 
the  fourfold,  distinctive  work  for  young  men.  These  two 
buildings  stood,  in  1870,  for  two  differing  phases  of  work  then 
prevalent  in  the  associations. 

"The  constitutions  of  the  two  associations  also  gave  evi- 
dence of  this  difference.  Before  1867  the  Chicago  constitution 
had  stated  as  the  object  of  the  society  'the  improvement  of  the 
spiritual,  intellectual  and  social  condition  of  young  men.'  But 
soon  after  that  date  this  statement  was  amended  to  read :  'the 
spiritual,  intellectual  and  social  improvement  of  all  within  its 
reach,  irrespective  of  age,  sex  or  condition.'  The  New  York 
constitution  had  been  amended  by  the  addition  of  the  adjective 
'physical'  to  read :  'the  improvement  of  the  spiritual,  mental, 
social  and  physical  condition  of  young  men.'  " 

d.  Two  Phases  of  State  and  Provincial  Work  in 
1873. 

These  two  phases  of  work  also  appeared  in  a 
marked  way  in  the  development  of  the  state  and 

49 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

provincial  organizations,  which  continued  to  grow 
in  number  and  efficiency.  On  the  floor  of  the  inter- 
national convention  in  the  summer  of  1873,  at  Pough- 
keepsie,  the  state  work,  as  then  conducted,  was  re- 
ported and  discussed.  Though  eighteen  state  and 
provincial  conventions  were  held  that  year,  only  that 
of  Pennsylvania  had  a  state  secretary.  The  chairman 
of  the  Massachusetts  Committee  reported  the  em- 
ployment by  it  of  an  evangelist,  with  whom  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  had  spent  101  days  and 
evenings,  visiting  forty-eight  of  the  cities  and  larger 
towns  of  the  state,  awakening  churches  and  com- 
munities. Four  hundred  conversions  had  resulted. 
Some  members  of  the  Committee  had  given  between 
twenty  and  thirty  days  of  their  time  to  this  work,  and 
a  leading  pastor  in  Massachusetts  had  declared  that 
"an  organization  which  had  originated  and  carried 
forward  such  a  canvass  as  this  had  proved  its  right 
to  exist."  The  aggregate  time  given  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  State  Committee  was  161  days;  they 
travelled  collectively  20,000  miles  during  the  can- 
vass. Such  a  report  made  a  profound  impression 
upon  the  convention  and  presented  a  type  of  state 
work  commanding  wide  attention  and  approval. 

The  Ohio  state  work  was  reported  with  special 
emphasis  upon  the  state  convention.  The  evange- 
listic influence  of  its  meetings  was  conspicuous. 
It  was  then  the  only  state  convention  which  fol- 
lowed the  international  in  tarrying  over  the  Lord's 
day  in  the  place  of  meeting.  It  impressed  the 
whole  community  where  the  delegates  met  beyond 

50 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

what  was  accomplished  in  this  direction  in  any  other 
state.  In  fact,  Ohio  was  setting  an  example  which 
has  since  been  followed  generally  elsewhere.  In 
Ohio,  also,  there  had  been  considerable  evangelistic 
visitation  similar  to  that  reported  from  Massachu- 
setts, and  much  inter-visitation  of  associations  by 
delegates  and  representatives  for  the  purpose  of 
holding  stirring  gospel  meetings  of  a  general 
character. 

Pennsylvania  was  represented  in  this  discussion 
by  its  state  secretary,  for  the  Pennsylvania  Com- 
mittee was  the  first  to  follow  the  local  organizations 
and  the  International  Committee  in  securing  as  early 
as  1871  an  employed  officer.  Happily  this  pioneer 
state  secretary  was  Samuel  A.  Taggart,  who  for 
nearly  eighteen  years  was  to  define  and  illustrate 
satisfactorily  the  functions  of  this  important  office. 
For  the  first  five  years  he  stood  alone  among  the  em- 
ployed agents  of  State  Committees  in  emphasizing 
as  of  first  importance  work  for  young  men  exclu- 
sively. At  Poughkeepsie,  in  1873,  he  reported  that 
under  his  leadership,  each  year,  a  series  of  public 
meetings  was  held  throughout  Pennsylvania,  which 
exerted  a  strong  evangelistic  influence  and  was  ac- 
companied by  many  conversions.  But  in  each  of 
these  meetings  much  attention  was  given  to  the  work 
of  the  local  association,  and  Mr.  Taggart  con- 
tended— to  use  his  own  words — that  "the  state  sec- 
retary is  not  a  missionary  nor  an  evangelist,  though 
he  should  always  be  evangelistic  in  spirit,  but  this 
spirit  should  be  manifested  in  specific  efforts  to  bene- 

5i 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

fit  and  build  up  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations. 
It  is  comparatively  easy  to  awaken  great  temporary 
enthusiasm,  but  it  is  quite  a  different  thing  to  count 
correctly  upon  the  patient  continuance  of  the  mem- 
bers in  the  work  and  upon  their  not  expending  all 
their  zeal  during  the  first  three  months  of  the  first 
year." 

In  the  same  discussion  a  member  of  the  New  York 
State  Committee  spoke  in  a  disheartened  way  about 
the  convention  in  that  state  and  the  work  of  its  Com- 
mittee during  the  past  seven  years.  Neither  con- 
vention nor  visitation  had  given  the  apparent  results 
reported  by  the  brethren  from  Massachusetts,  Ohio 
and  Pennsylvania.  The  type  of  work  presented  in 
Pennsylvania  was  the  type  toward  which  the  New 
York  methods  pointed.  But  the  New  York  Com- 
mittee, under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  McBurney,  was 
unwilling  to  resort  to  general  evangelistic  methods 
and  had  not  yet  secured  the  qualified  state  secretary 
whom  they  were  seeking  and  were  soon  to  find. 

The  wide  outlook  over  the  whole  field  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  convention  of  1873  was  at  the  mo- 
ment bewildering.  The  double  objective  prevailing 
in  the  first  confederation  period  of  association  his- 
tory was  still  in  evidence.  The  excellent  feature 
in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  was  emphasis  upon 
the  individual  local  association,  and  the  importance 
of  its  being  studied  and  helped  by  the  agency  of 
supervision  to  a  definite  fourfold  work  for  young 
men.  The  strong  feature  in  Massachusetts  and  Ohio 
was  the  presence   of    the   evangelistic   fervor   and 

52 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

spiritual  results  of  first  importance  in  all  Christian 
work.  But  distinctive  work  for  young  men  was  not 
fostered. 

The  two  tendencies,  however,  while  in  conflict  as 
to  form  and  methods,  were  advocated  by  friends 
who  had  the  same  supreme  aim.  For  in  Pennsyl- 
vania the  desired  emphasis  on  work  for  young  men 
was  accompanied  by  such  evangelistic  effort  for 
them  as  was  necessary  to  fulfil  the  supreme  spiritual 
purpose  of  the  association.  And  in  New  York  a 
few  years  later,  as  state  secretary,  George  A.  Hall 
accomplished  the  same  evangelistic  result  while 
organizing  work  for  young  men  in  that  state.  Soon 
afterwards  several  state  organizations,  including 
Wisconsin,  Ohio,  Massachusetts  and  Illinois, 
adopted  these  lines  of  effort.  The  Chicago  associa- 
tion gradually  concentrated  upon  work  for  young 
men.  The  general  evangelistic  work  continued  for 
a  time  popular  in  some  states,  but  ultimately  work 
for  young  men  exclusively  and  emphasis  upon  the 
evangelistic  spirit  in  this  work  prevailed. 

e.     Relations  of  the  Federation  Agencies. 

The  state  and  provincial  organizations,  while  in- 
dependent of  the  international,  early  began  to  fol- 
low its  example  by  creating  each  an  Executive  or 
State  Committee  of  its  own,  by  adopting  the  same 
test  of  active  membership  and  by  holding  a  direct 
relation  to  the  independent  local  associations.  Later 
they  secured  incorporation,  with  permission  to  hold 
property  for  individual  associations  as  well  as  for 
themselves.    These  federation  agencies  also  from  the 

53 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

beginning,  as  parent  and  children,  so  supplemented 
one  another  by  wise  consultation  and  cooperation 
that  the  best  local  association  work  was  accom- 
plished, as  a  rule,  where  both  agencies  harmoniously 
exerted  their  joint  ministry  of  help  * 

f.  Visitation  in  the  South. 

In  the  winter  of  1870-71,  the  International  Com- 
mittee's work  of  visitation  was  extended  to  the  South. 
One  of  its  members,  William  F.  Lee,  and  the  secre- 
tary of  the  Washington  association,  George  A.  Hall, 
effectively  visited  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  some 
of  the  leading  cities  of  the  South.  This  led  to 
southern  tours  yet  more  extended  and  fruitful  in 
succeeding  winters  by  Mr.  Hall,  accompanied  by 
Thomas  K.  Cree,  then  under  government  appoint- 
ment as  secretary  of  the  National  Indian  Bureau  at 
Washington.  Steady  progress  in  the  work  at  the 
South  resulted.  Their  experience  in  this  visitation 
also  led  these  two  friends  a  few  years  later  to  devote 
themselves  wholly  to  association  supervision,  Mr. 
Cree  in  the  international,  and  Mr.  Hall,  as  already 
mentioned,  in  the  state  work  of  New  York. 

g.  General  Secretaries'  Conference  and  Secre- 
tarial Training. 

In  1871 — after  the  adjournment  in  Washington  of 
the  international  convention — the  salaried  officers  of 


♦Polity  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  p.  12.  The  relations  of 
the  agencies  of  federation  to  one  another  and  to  the  associations  and  the 
acts  of  conventions  relating  to  them  are  so  fully  treated  by  the  author 
in  this  Polity  pamphlet  that  the  subject  is  only  briefly  referred  to  in  this 
sketch  of  association  federation. 

54 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  associations  met  in  conference  for  the  first  time. 
Thirteen  were  present,  and  formed  "The  General 
Secretaries'  Association."  This  was  the  beginning 
of  a  series  of  annual  meetings  which  proved  to  be 
institutes  for  the  training  of  secretaries  and  of  can- 
didates for  the  office.  At  its  first  meeting  the  name 
of  general  secretary — then  borne  by  only  one  of 
their  number — was  chosen  by  these  officers.  For 
the  first  fifteen  years  the  program  of  the  annual 
meeting  was  carefully  prepared  in  consultation  with 
the  International  Committee  and  its  office  force. 
For  the  Committee  Mr.  McBurney  was  the  chief  coun- 
selor. The  valuable  secretarial  pamphlets  and  litera- 
ture of  the  conference  were  edited  or  carefully  re- 
vised in  the  international  office.  In  those  early 
years,  the  number  of  assistant  secretaries  was  very 
small  and  the  chief  source  of  secretarial  training  and 
supply  was  the  secretarial  bureaus  of  the  Inter- 
national and  State  Committees,  reinforced  by  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  secretaries'  conference  as  an 
efficient  auxiliary. 

In  1879,  out  of  161  secretaries  then  holding  the 
office,  124  were  present  at  the  secretaries'  con- 
ference— this  was  owing  in  part  to  formal  request 
for  their  attendance  by  the  International  Committee, 
a  request  which  the  Committee  annually  made  of 
boards  of  directors  employing  secretaries. 

h.     A  German-speaking  International  Secretary. 

A  German-speaking  secretary  was  authorized  by 
the  convention  of  1874,  and  secured  by  the  Committee 
in  the  person  of  the  late  Rev.   Fred,  von  Schluem- 

55 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

bach.  For  seven  years,  during  a  period  of  very 
large  German  immigration  to  the  continent,  he  or- 
ganized and  promoted  the  efficiency  of  German- 
speaking  branches  of  associations  in  cities  where 
German-speaking  young  men  were  most  numerous. 
These  branches  served  a  valuable  though,  as  it 
proved,  a  temporary  purpose,  most  of  them  having 
now  lost  their  exclusively  German  name  and  charac- 
ter without  losing  their  attractiveness  to  young  men 
of  German  birth  and  descent. 

(4)  The  Fourth,  Fifth  and  Sixth  Terms  of  the 
International  Committee,  1875  to  1883 

The  conventions  of  1875,  1879  and  1881  reelected 
the  Committee  for  its  fourth  term  of  four  years, 
and  its  fifth  and  sixth  terms  of  two  years  each.  The 
length  of  these  terms  was  regulated  by  the  fact  that 
the  meetings  of  the  convention  became  biennial 
after  the  year  1877.  The  Committee  was  also  grad- 
ually enlarged  by  increasing  the  number  resident 
in  New  York  to  nine  and  by  adding  in  1875  a  group 
of  fifteen  members  resident  in  representative  cities. 
The  convention  of  1879  formally  adopted  for  the 
Committee  its  present  designation,  International, 
a  name  which  usage  had  given  it  for  many  years 
and  by  which  it  had  been  widely  known. 

a.  Office  and  Traveling  Secretaries  added  to  the 
International  Force. 

During  this  period,  in  1875,  Erskine  Uhl  became 
the  office  secretary  of  the  Committee  and  Thomas 

56 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

K.  Cree  a  traveling  secretary.  Both  still  continue 
active  members  of  the  Committee's  force. 

b.  International  Secretaries  for  the  Negro,  Rail- 
road and  Student  work. 

The  conventions  of  1875  and  1876  authorized  the 
employment  of  international  secretaries  for  work 
among  railroad  and  colored  men,  and  the  convention 
of  1877  of  a  college  student  secretary,  Luther  D. 
Wishard,  to  form  and  strengthen  associations  in  col- 
leges and  to  foster  among  them  intercollegiate  fellow- 
ship and  cooperation.  This  was  an  important  new 
departure,  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  in  the  early 
seventies  specially  vigorous  efforts  were  being  made 
to  adapt  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  association 
to  organizations  composed  exclusively  of  members 
from  these  important  classes  of  young  men.  This 
involved  a  certain  segregation  and  isolation  of  these 
societies  and  their  members,  uniting  them  to  one 
another  in  each  group  by  peculiar  ties  of  fellowship. 
On  the  other  hand  it  equally  involved  a  union  of 
these  class  societies  with  the  whole  association 
brotherhood  which  was  essential  to  the  unity  and 
highest  usefulness  of  that  brotherhood.  Both  the 
segregation  and  the  unity  have  been  happily  con- 
served and  harmonized.  This  is  among  the  results 
of  wise  federation  supervision  promptly  undertaken 
at  the  beginning  of  the  movement  among  each  of 
these  groups  and  later  among  other  classes  of 
young  men.  It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the 
importance  of  both  the  segregation  and  the  unity 
thus  accomplished.     Every  new  achievement  in  this 

57 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

direction  strengthened  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
adaptation  of  association  organization  and  methods 
to  all  classes  of  young  men. 

c.     Further  growth  of  State  and  Provincial  Work. 

State  and  provincial  conventions  continued  to 
grow  in  influence.  Emphasis  upon  general  evan- 
gelistic meetings  and  canvasses  gradually  dimin- 
ished. These  meetings  were  attended  very  widely 
with  blessed  results  in  numerous  conversions  and 
were  gratefully  appreciated  by  many  pastors  and 
communities.  But  they  did  not  result,  as  their  ad- 
vocates had  confidently  hoped  they  would,  in  multi- 
plying and  strengthening  associations  and  their  dis- 
tinctive work  for  young  men.  In  1878  twenty-six 
state  and  provincial  conventions  were  held  and  six 
State  Committees  were  employing  state  secretaries, 
five  of  whom  were  chiefly  occupied  with  holding 
general  evangelistic  meetings.  In  1879  twelve 
State  and  Provincial  Committees  were  employing 
secretaries,  of  whom  only  four  were  chiefly  occu- 
pied with  the  work  of  an  evangelist.  The  remainder 
were  engrossed  in  distinctive  association  work.  In 
1883  thirteen  State  and  Provincial  Committees  were 
employing  state  secretaries,  of  whom  all  but  one  or 
two  were  devoting  themselves  to  distinctive  associa- 
tion work.  The  international  secretaries,  now  nine 
in  number,  were  from  the  beginning  wholly  occu- 
pied with  this  work.  To  this  happy  result  careful 
and  thorough  specialization  during  the  seventeen 
years  since  1866  had  brought  the  agencies  of  federa- 
tion and  the  brotherhood  they  were  serving. 

58 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

d.     D.  L.  Moody  and  the  Associations. 

The  career  of  Dwight  L.  Moody  and  his  relation 
to  the  associations,  first  as  a  leader  among  them  and 
then  as  the  preeminent  evangelist,  vividly  illustrates 
the  change  which  has  just  been  described.  Mr. 
Moody  was  a  lifelong  friend  of  the  association  and 
frequently  testified :  "It  has  done  more,  under  God, 
in  developing  me  for  Christian  work  than  any  other 
agency."  As  the  head  of  the  Chicago  association, 
he  was  until  1870  its  conspicuous  delegate  on  the 
floor  of  the  international  convention,  advocating  the 
general  evangelistic  type  of  work.  After  that  year 
he  ceased  to  attend,  becoming  wholly  absorbed  in  this 
work  within  and  outside  of  the  association.  After 
nine  years  he  reappeared  in  the  international 
convention  of  1879  at  Baltimore,  not  as  an  association 
officer  but  as  a  world-famous  evangelist,  who,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  had  so  contributed  to 
the  growth  and  development  of  these  associations  by 
encouraging  their  formation,  procuring  buildings  for 
them,  stimulating  their  evangelistic  work  for  young 
men  and  the  spiritual  life  of  their  leaders,  that  he 
was  unamiously  and  enthusiastically  welcomed  to  the 
presidency  of  the  convention. 

A  few  days  before,  meeting  the  secretaries  of  the 
continent  in  their  conference  and  speaking  of  his  ex- 
perience as  an  officer  of  the  Chicago  association,  he 
said  he  became  satisfied  as  early  as  1873  that  as  an 
evangelist  his  field  of  service  was  not  that  of  an  as- 
sociation secretary.  In  answer  to  the  question: 
"  What  agencies  do  you  think  the  association  should 

59 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

use?"  he  said:  "There  are  many  ways  of  reaching 
young  men.  I  would  recommend  a  gymnasium, 
classes,  medical  lectures,  social  receptions,  music, 
and  all  unobjectionable  agencies.  These  are  for 
week  days.  We  do  not  want  simply  evangelistic 
meetings.  I  have  tried  that  method  in  association 
work  and  failed;  so  I  gave  it  up  and  became  an 
evangelist.  You  cannot  do  both  and  succeed."  In 
answer  to  the  question:  "What  do  you  consider  the 
great  need  of  the  association  work  now?"  looking  in- 
to the  faces  of  seventy-six  association  secretaries,  he 
answered:  "More  trained  secretaries,  and  more 
training  schools  such  as  this  conference.  Every  sec- 
retary ought  to  be  training  suitable  young  men  for 
secretaries.  There  are  many  places  in  this  country 
where  such  men  could  be  placed  and  the  money 
raised  for  their  support.  The  general  secretary 
needs  training  for  his  work.  A  man  cannot  be  an 
evangelist  and  a  general  secretary  without  spoiling 
his  work  in  both." 

While  accomplishing  his  wonderful  work  as  an 
evangelist,  Mr.  Moody  always  showed  himself  to  be 
the  friend  of  the  association  secretary  in  the  place 
where  he  was  working  and  of  the  association  move- 
ment there  and  elsewhere.  It  might  be  justly  said 
of  the  secretaries  whom  he  addressed  in  Baltimore 
that  he  had  influenced  the  spiritual  life  and  evan- 
gelistic activity  of  so  many  of  them  as  to  make  his 
personal  influence  upon  them  a  strong  factor  in  giv- 
ing to  the  work  of  the  brotherhood  its  evangelistic 
character. 

60 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

He  was  always  an  efficient,  helpful  friend  of  the 
International  Committee  in  its  federation  work.  In 
some  of  the  early  critical  years  he  secured  the  largest 
annual  contribution  to  this  work.  In  his  later  life 
he  was  one  of  the  most  helpful  friends  of  the  student 
work,  as  host  and  leader  of  the  parent  student  sum- 
mer conference  at  Northfield.  In  those  difficult  years 
of  the  movement  he  made  possible  the  employment 
of  additional  and  sorely  needed  international  student 
secretaries.  And  as  the  friend  of  students  and  of 
Christian  leaders  among  them  he  gave  evangelistic 
impulse  to  the  entire  student  association  movement 
and  its  supervision. 

e.     Training  and  Securing  Secretaries. 

During  all  this  period  increasing  emphasis  was 
laid  in  federation  work  upon  training  and  securing 
association  secretaries  By  careful  visitation  the 
demand  was  created  for  such  secretaries  in  cities, 
colleges  and  railroad  communities,  and  in  states 
where  the  support  of  state  secretaries  could  be  se- 
cured for  part  or  all  of  their  time.  The  demand 
having  been  created  it  was  supplied  with  men  as 
qualified  as  could  be  obtained.  The  supply  of  this 
demand  involved  keeping  in  the  office  of  the  Com- 
mittee careful  registry  of  the  names  and  records  of 
secretaries  already  in  office,  correspondence  with 
them,  making  inquiry  for  candidates,  and  vigilant 
relation  to  the  meetings  and  publications  of  the 
secretaries'  conference,  especially  during  the  first 
fifteen  years  of  that  conference. 

In  1881,  161  candidates  were  dealt  with  through 

61 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  international  office,  forty-nine  of  whom  became 
secretaries.  In  this  year  the  census  told  of  206 
cities  in  the  United  States  and  the  Dominion  of 
Canada  with  a  population  of  7,500  and  over.  Less 
than  half  the  number  (ninety-four  cities)  had  asso- 
ciation secretaries.  Three  years  later,  193  cities  had 
secretaries,  secured  largely  through  this  specializa- 
tion on  secretarial  training  by  both  International 
and  State  Committees.  At  this  time,  before  the 
training  schools  had  been  founded,  the  International 
Committee  sent  candidates  to  four  cities  of  50,000 
or  less  population,  in  each  of  which  the  secretary 
had  the  gifts  of  a  teacher.  In  1883,  sixty-four  can- 
didates were  trained  at  these  points  and  fifty-two  of 
them  entered  the  work.  Some  years  later,  when 
the  first  training  school  was  being  established,  the 
head  of  the  secretarial  bureau  of  the  International 
Committee,  Jacob  T.  Bowne,  was  sought  and  ob- 
tained as  its  first  secretarial  instructor. 

f.      Growth  of  the  Building  Movement. 

For  associations  with  good  secretaries  adequate 
buildings  were  needed,  and  vigorous  campaigns  for 
them  were  entered  upon  by  the  supervisory  agencies. 
Some  associations  had  secured  buildings  fitted  for 
evangelistic  work  rather  than  for  the  all-round  work. 
Information  regarding  the  best  buildings,  adapted 
to  the  four-fold  work  for  young  men,  was  always 
accessible  in  the  international  office.  Every  effort 
was  made  to  embody  in  new  buildings  the  best 
features   of  their   predecessors  and  to  create   that 

62 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

genuine  evolution  which  has  strongly  characterized 
the  association  building  movement  from  its  be- 
ginning. 

(5)  World  Federation — World's  Committee 
Formed 

Active  and  increasing  intercourse  with  the  associa- 
tions of  other  continents  was  also  maintained  during 
this  period.  An  extensive  tour  of  the  European 
associations  was  happily  accomplished  by  one  of  the 
members  of  the  International  Committee,  Mr. 
James  Stokes,  Jr.,  and  fully  reported  by  him  to  the 
convention  of  1869. 

The  triennial  meetings  of  the  World's  Conferences 
were  attended  on  behalf  of  the  International  Com- 
mittee by  Mr.  McBurney,  by  its  general  secretary, 
and  other  representatives.  At  the  conference  of 
1878  at  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  forty  delegates  from 
North  America  were  present,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  American  precedent  the  conference  ap- 
pointed for  the  first  time  an  Executive  Committee 
with  a  working  quorum  of  its  members  resident  in 
Geneva.  Owing  to  hearty  support  from  the  British 
and  American  delegates  this  Committee  was  able  at 
once  to  employ  as  its  general  secretary  Mr.  Charles 
Fermaud.  He  came  as  the  guest  of  the  American 
secretaries  to  attend  the  international  convention  and 
secretaries'  conference  of  1879,  and  to  study  associa- 
tion work  on  this  continent. 

In  this  period,  also,  some  of  the  students  who  had 
been  in  association  work  during  their  college  life 

63 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

graduated  and  reached  the  foreign  field  as  mission- 
aries. They  organized  several  student  associations 
on  the  American  plan  in  missionary  colleges  with 
which  they  became  connected,  and  began  corre- 
spondence with  the  student  secretary  of  the  Interna- 
tional Committee  concerning  the  extension  of  this 
college  work  into  foreign  mission  lands. 


CHAPTER     V.     THE     THIRD     PERIOD     OF 
FEDERATION,   1883-1904 

The  Time  of  Greatest  Enlargement.  Incorpora- 
tion of  International  Committee.  Specializa- 
tion on  Internal  Development  of  Local  Asso- 
ciations, in  Buildings  and  Secretaries,  in  Or- 
ganizations of  Student,  Railroad  and  Other 
Classes  of  Young  Men,  and  in  the  Physical, 
Educational  and  Religious  Work.  Metropoli- 
tan and  County  Organizations  Recognized  and 
Fostered.  Federation  Relationships  Defined. 
The  Grand  Rapids  (1899)  and  Buffalo  (1904) 
Convention  Resolutions.  Growing  Fellowship 
with  Association  Work  on  Other  Continents. 

The  third  period  of  North  American  association 
federation  opened  with  the  international  convention 
of  1883  at  Milwaukee.  Obeying  the  instructions  of 
the  previous  convention,  the  International  Commit- 
tee brought  to  Milwaukee  for  approval  an  act  of  the 
New  York  legislature  incorporating  the  Committee, 
creating  a  board  of  trustees  to  hold  property  in  trust 
for  the  associations  and  for  their  Committee,  and 
providing  for  the  election  thereafter  at  each  conven- 
tion of  one-third  of  the  members  of  the  Committee. 
This  charter  was  discussed,  approved  and  adopted. 
A  group  of  advisory  members  was  also  elected  by 
the  convention. 

This  third  and  longest  period  of  association  fed- 

65 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

eration,  lasting-  twenty-one  years,  has  witnessed  the 
greatest  enlargement  of  association  work. 

In  1883  the  total  expenditure  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can associations  was  $681,347. 

In  1903,  an  increase  of  sixfold,  $3,913,239. 

In  1883,  total  property  in  buildings,  $3,641,500. 

In  1903,  an  increase  of  nearly  eightfold,  $28,477,205. 

In  1883,  total  number  of  employed  officers,  388. 

In  1903,  an  increase  of  nearly  fivefold,  1,729. 

In  1883,  state  and  provincial  secretaries,  seventeen. 

In  1903,  an  increase  of  over  fourfold,  seventy-four. 

In  1883,  number  of  international  secretaries,  ten. 

In  1903,  number  of  international  secretaries  on 
home  field,  forty-one;  on  foreign  field,  thirty-five, 
an  increase  of  fourfold  on  home  field  alone. 

In  1883,  twenty-four  members  of  the  International 
Committee. 

In  1903,  forty-five  members  of  the  International 
Committee. 

(1)  Emphasis  on  Internal  Development  of  Local 
Associations 

a.  Throughout  this  period  increasing  emphasis 
by  both  international  and  state  organizations  was 
laid  upon  securing  and  training  association  secreta- 
ries, local,  state  and  international.  In  its  opening 
years  the  two  training  schools — independent  institu- 
tions, but  receiving  hearty  sympathy  and  coopera- 
tion from  the  federation  agencies — were  welcomed 
as  reinforcements  to  the  secretarial  bureaus,  inter- 
national, state  and  provincial.     These  schools  have 

66 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

been  slowly  and  patiently  built  up  to  their  present 
encouraging  proportions  in  Springfield,  Mass. ,  and 
Chicago,  111. 

The  secretarial  bureaus  vigilantly  continued  their 
work.  Between  1895  and  1897,  451  persons  were 
dealt  with  by  the  international  bureau.  Through 
that  bureau  120  of  these  found  secretarial  positions 
in  all  departments,  and  ninety-five  of  them  obtained 
positions  through  state  and  other  agencies.  In  1903, 
181  men  were  aided  by  international  secretaries  in 
entering  association  service;  personal  intercourse 
with  478  yielded  this  result.  Three  hundred  and 
ninety-four  applications  for  men  were  received. 

b.  Careful  promotion  of  the  building  movement 
and  its  evolution  was  continued. 

c.  Equally  upon  work  for  special  classes  of  young 
men  emphasis  was  laid.  To  the  international  and 
to  some  state  secretarial  forces  were  added  special 
student  and  railroad  secretaries,  greatly  increasing 
this  section  of  federation  employed  officers.  The 
international  student  secretaries  increased  from  one 
to  ten  under  the  leadership  of  John  R.  Mott,  and 
the  railroad  secretaries  from  one  to  six  with  Clarence 
J.  Hicks  as  senior  secretary.  The  international  force 
was  also  increased  by  a  secretary  for  work  among 
men  of  the  industrial  classes ;  also  for  work  among 
Indian  young  men,  first  by  Dr.  Charles  A.  Eastman 
and  then  by  Arthur  T.  Tibbetts,  both  men  of  the 
Indian  race.  For  work  among  Negro  young  men 
two  rarely  qualified  secretaries  of  that  race  were 
secured,  W.  A.  Hunton  and  J.  E.  Moorland. 

67 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

Early  in  the  period  at  militia  summer  camps  sev- 
eral State  and  Provincial  Committees  organized  and 
carried  on  an  effective  tent  work  among-  the  Ameri- 
can and  Canadian  soldiers  in  these  camps — a  work 
on  association  lines  which  commands  increasingly 
the  approval  of  both  officers  and  men. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish-American  war 
in  1898  the  International  Committee,  adding  an 
army  and  navy  secretary  to  its  force,  organized  and 
carried  on  a  similar  work  among  the  United  States 
troops  in  their  camps  and  among  the  sailors  of  the 
navy.  During  the  South  African  war  association 
army  work  was  also  promoted  in  the  Canadian  con- 
tingent of  the  British  troops,  with  the  hearty  ap- 
proval of  the  authorities 

Under  vigilant  supervision  by  the  International 
Committee  and  its  secretaries  this  phase  of  associa- 
tion work  has  been  continued  and  developed  at  the 
permanent  army  posts  and  naval  stations  and  upon 
the  war  vessels  of  the  United  States.  It  has  received 
strong  encouragement  from  successive  international 
conventions  and  from  the  national  government 
authorities.  This  adaptation  of  association  princi- 
ples and  methods  to  the  life  and  environment  of  the 
soldier  and  the  sailor,  from  its  beginning  during 
the  American  Civil  War,  has  been  preeminently  in- 
debted for  both  its  development  and  efficiency  to 
the  federation  agencies  of  the  associations. 

d.  But  in  a  fourth  and  new  direction  interesting 
progress  was  realized.  In  the  previous  period, 
having  specialized  on  the  work  of  the  individual  as- 

68 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

sociation  as  a  unit,  and  upon  the  secretary  as  the 
employed  officer  of  each  entire  association,  the  time 
was  now  ripe  for  the  supervisory  agencies  to  spe- 
cialize on  the  different  departments  and  their  secre- 
taries within  the  individual  association,  including 
the  physical,  educational  and  spiritual  work. 

The  physical  work  was  first  presented  and  dis- 
cussed at  an  international  convention  in  1881,  by 
R.  J.  Roberts,  then  and  still  in  charge  of  the  physical 
department  of  the  Boston  association.  In  1886  the 
International  Committee  secured  in  Dr.  Luther  H. 
Gulick  a  rarely  qualified  secretary  for  this  depart- 
ment. In  1892  a  similar  secretary  for  the  educa- 
tional department  was  found  in  George  B.  Hodge ; 
in  1899  a  religious  work  secretary,  Fred  B.  Smith, 
was  added  to  the  force  and  was  followed  in  1901  by 
F.  S.  Goodman  with  a  special  reference  to  the  Bible 
department;  in  1900  Edgar  M.  Robinson  accepted 
a  call  to  become  the  first  international  boys'  secre- 
tary. 

Some  of  these  specialists  on  the  international 
force  were  preceded — as  has  been  true  of  other  fea- 
tures of  progress  in  the  work — by  similar  specialists 
in  a  few  of  the  local  and  state  organizations.  But  in 
each  department  international  outlook  and  leader- 
ship, resting  upon  a  relation  to  experience  covering 
the  whole  field,  has  seemed  essential  to  the  best  de- 
velopment of  the  work.  In  the  training  schools 
also  effort  was  put  forth  to  train  candidates  for 
these  positions. 

e.     This  growing  emphasis  on  the  internal  devel- 

69 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

opment  of  the  local  associations  is  also  shown  in  their 
expenditures.  In  1876  the  total  sum  expended  by 
the  440  associations  reporting  current  expenses  was 
$311,000,  or  an  average  annual  expense  of  $680  for 
each  association.  In  1883,  416  reported  current 
expenses  amounting  to  $621,500,  or  an  average  ex- 
penditure by  each  association  of  $1,494.  In  1903, 
1,150  reported,  an  increase  over  1883  of  176  per  cent ; 
but  their  expenditure  had  grown  to  $3,856,328,  or 
520  per  cent.  Thus  the  average  expense  reported, 
which  in  1876  was  $680,  became  in  1883,  $1,496;  and 
in  1904,  $3,353. 

This  gives  financial  evidence  of  the  fact  that  re- 
cent years  are  signalized  by  remarkable  growth  in 
lines  which  call  on  each  association  to  more  than 
double  its  yearly  expenditure.  This  means  an  in- 
crease not  so  much  in  the  number  of  associations  as 
in  the  number  and  qualification  of  employed  offi- 
cers, in  the  number  and  equipment  of  buildings 
new  and  buildings  improved,  in  the  number  and 
excellence  of  the  physical  and  educational  classes, 
in  the  efficiency  of  the  Bible  and  other  religious 
work,  and  of  the  boys'  departments.  The  growth 
has  been  intensive  rather  than  extensive,  reaching 
every  part  of  the  diversified  local  work.  Upon  all 
these  lines  specialization  by  the  agencies  of  super- 
vision has  been  emphasized. 

One  important  result  of  this  growth,  especially  in 
religious  work,  has  been  an  extension  of  hospitality 
to  an  ever  increasing  number  of  non-members. 
Though   the    association    membership   is  less  than 

7o 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

400,000,  the  enlarged  resources  of  the  individual 
associations  enable  them  to  influence  helpfully- 
several  million  young  men  in  the  course  of  each 
year. 

f.     Periodicals  and  Publications. 

The  Quarterly,  as  already  noted,  was  issued  by  the 
International  Committee  soon  after  its  location  in 
New  York.  It  was  followed  (1870-73)  by  The  Asso- 
ciation Monthly.  Later  the  bulletin  of  the  Chicago 
Association  was  expanded  into  a  general  paper, 
under  private  management,  and  entitled  successively 
The  Watchman,  The  Young  Men's  Era  and  Men. 
Its  lineal  successor,  Association  Men,  is  now  pub- 
lished monthly  from  the  office  of  the  International 
Committee. 

In  its  earliest  history  the  International  Committee 
began  to  issue  also  small  pamphlets,  in  addition  to 
full  Reports  of  the  Conventions.  This  form  of 
effort  has  gradually  grown  until  the  publications  of 
the  Committee,  nearly  300  in  number,  include  not 
only  many  technical  pamphlets,  which  are  helpful 
in  organizing  associations  and  developing  interest 
in  their  support,  but  hand  books  for  the  guidance 
of  the  officers  employed  in  different  phases  of  the 
work  and  a  Year  Book  of  over  400  pages.  In  1904 
an  Association  Hymn  Book  was  issued  and  favorably 
received.  There  is  also  a  list  of  excellent  Bible 
Study  Courses  and  of  personal  work  and  devotional 
literature,  which  is  believed  to  surpass  in  extent 
and  value  the  similar  issues  of  any  denominational 
or  general  publishing  firm.     These  are  used  exten- 

7i 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

sively  by  churches  and  other  organizations,  as  well 
as  by  the  associations.  The  sales  in  1903  amounted 
to  $45,989. 

While  these  publications  have  been  invaluable  to 
the  active  workers,  the  number  of  such  workers  has 
not  yet  become  large  enough  to  cover  the  expense 
involved.  But  the  Committee  has  wisely  carried 
this  expense  in  its  annual  budgets,  assured  of  the 
helpfulness  of  these  publications. 

The  State  and  Provincial  Committees  have  is- 
sued numerous  Convention  Reports  and  Bulletins, 
but  the  development  of  other  distinctive  association 
literature  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  left  to  the 
International  organization. 

(2)     County  and  Metropolitan  Organizations 

During  this  period  two  new  association  organiza- 
tions, the  county  and  the  metropolitan,  were  formed 
with  secretaries  whose  office  and  work  related  them 
both  to  the  supervisory  and  the  local  secretaryship.  * 

The  county  organization  marks  an  era  in  the  de- 
velopment of  association  work  among  young  men 
in  the  small  town  and  country  neighborhood.  From 
the  beginning  the  problem  of  a  self  supporting, 
permanent  organization  among  these  young  men 
baffled  the  strenuous  endeavor  of  the  agencies  of 
supervision.  For  the  problem  of  the  city  associa- 
tion a  comparatively  early  solution  was  worked  out. 
A  strong  factor  in  this  solution,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
the  securing  and  training  of   an   expert  employed 

♦Polity  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  pp.  29-32. 

72 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

officer.  A  similar  experience  was  realized  in  organ- 
izing work  among  young  men  in  the  country. 

The  State  Committees  accomplished,  and  still  ac- 
complish, a  good  work  through  the  enlistment  of 
corresponding  members  resident  in  these  country 
communities,  and  also  through  conferences  and 
gospel  services  known  as  Young  Men's  Sundays; 
but  the  indispensable  employed  officer  was  not 
secured  until,  under  the  leadership  of  Robert 
Weidensall,  of  the  International,  and  his  associates 
of  the  State  Committees,  the  county  organization  was 
formed,  with  the  employed  county  secretary,  inter- 
national, state  and  local.  This  personal  factor  is  an 
important  element  in  the  satisfactory  solution  of 
this  difficult  problem.  Not  many  counties  have  yet 
been  organized,  and  careful  experimentation  is  still 
going  forward,  but  substantial  progress  has  been 
made. 

The  first  metropolitan  organization,  with  R.  R. 
McBurney  as  its  secretary,  was  formed  in  New  York 
City  in  1887.  Later  the  associations  with  branches 
or  departments  in  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  other 
cities  organized  their  work  on  the  same  basis,  with 
such  modifications  as  they  deemed  desirable. 

During  this  period  these  associations  sought  and 
obtained  from  the  conventions  two  important  privi- 
leges and  benefits  : 

a.  The  conventions  of  1885  and  1889  granted  to 
each  branch  or  department  having  a  distinct  roll  of 
membership  the  number  of  delegates  to  which  an 
independent  association  of  equal  size  was  entitled, — 

73 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

a  privilege  which  aided  organizations  with  branches 
in  their  worthy  endeavor  to  give  to  each  branch  as 
far  as  possible  the  consideration  and  standing  of  an 
association. 

b.  Yet  more  noteworthy  action  affecting  these 
organizations  was  taken  by  the  convention  of  1891 
at  Kansas  City,  when,  in  order  to  promote  the  soli- 
darity of  association  work  in  the  large  cities  the 
International  Committee  was  instructed  not  to  recog- 
nize in  a  city  where  an  association  already  exists 
another  independent  association  ' '  college  and  col- 
ored associations  excepted." 

Like  the  adoption  of  the  test  of  membership  by 
the  convention  of  1869,  this  action  conditioned  the 
representation  of  certain  associations  upon  a  com- 
pliance by  them  with  the  requirement  of  the  con- 
vention regarding  an  important  feature  of  their 
constitutions. 

In  1869  the  object  of  the  convention  related  to 
the  voting  membership;  in  1891  to  the  unity  of  the 
association  organization  in  a  city  or  community.  In 
the  latter  case  two  exceptions  were  made  in  favor 
of  "college  and  colored  associations."  To  these 
exceptions  the  convention  of  1904  added  the  follow- 
ing : 

"State,  Provincial  or  International  Committees 
may  in  exceptional  cases,  and  only  while  necessary, 
recognize  each  for  itself  provisional  railroad,  army 
and  navy  associations,  and  also  (with  the  consent  of 
the  local  associations)  provisional  industrial  and  city 
associations,  at  points  having  local  associations  with 

74 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

which  for  the  time  being  organic  relations  cannot 
be  established  or  maintained."* 

(4)  Definition  of  Association  and  Federation  Re- 
lationships 

During  this  period  the  growth  of  the  federation 
agencies  naturally  gave  rise  to  some  discussion  con- 
cerning their  relation  to  one  another.  Occasional 
friction  seemed  to  call  for  some  formal  definition  by 
the  international  convention  of  those  relationships 
of  consultation  and  cooperation  which  usage  or  un- 
written regulation  had  been  gradually  establishing. 
In  response  to  this  call  and  discussion,  the  Inter- 
national Committee  submitted  and  the  convention 
of  1899,  at  Grand  Rapids,  adopted  the  following, 
which  became  known  as  the  ' '  Grand  Rapids  Reso- 
lutions: "  f 

"Resolved,  i.  That  the  International  and  State  Committees 
exist  as  independent  supervisory  agencies,  directly  and  equally 
related  to  the  local  organization,  which  is  the  original  and  in- 
dependent unit  in  the  brotherhood  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Associations,  and  that  the  relation  of  the  supervisory 
agencies  to  the  local  organizations  is  as  a  rule  advisory. 

"  2.  That  in  the  relations  of  comity,  which  have  been  well 
established  by  usage  hitherto,  it  is  understood  that  the  Inter- 
national Committee  as  a  rule  exercises  general  and  the  State 
Committee  exercises  close  supervision,  it  being  also  understood 
that  by  the  terms  general  and  close  nothing  is  intended  in- 
consistent with  the  direct  and  equal  relation  of  each  local  or- 
ganization to  both  the  international  and  state  organizations. 

"3.     That  it  is  desirable  that  the  International  Committee, 


♦Polity  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  pp.  11,  12  and  xxi. 
tPolity  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  pp.  25,  33  and  34. 

75 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

in  each  department  of  its  work,  plan  to  meet  the  needs  of  fields 
where  state  and  provincial  organizations  exist,  in  conference 
with  such  organizations,  in  such  a  way  as  to  supplement,  not 
duplicate,  the  corresponding  department  of  state  or  provincial 
work,  and  to  secure  by  such  adjustment  of  forces  economy  of 
effort,  time  and  money. 

"4.  That  the  International  Committee  in  forming  and  de- 
veloping state  and  provincial  organizations,  place  emphasis 
upon  the  responsibility  vested  in  these  organizations  and  that 
cooperation  with  them  be  carefully  cultivated." 

After  adopting  these  resolutions  the  convention 
appointed  a  Committee  of  Seven,  enlarged  by  the 
convention  of  1901  to  a  Committee  of  Twenty-one, 
to  report  any  fuller  definition  that  might  be  deemed 
desirable  of  the  relations  and  functions  of  interna- 
tional, state  and  local  organizations. 

As  a  result  of  further  deliberations  this  Com- 
mittee submitted  to  the  convention  of  1904  majority 
and  minority  reports.  The  majority  report,  amended 
into  the  following  form,  was  adopted  : 

"First. — The  'Grand  Rapids  Resolutions'  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  international  convention  of 
1899  and  reaffirmed  without  change  by  the  inter- 
national convention  of  1901,  fairly  interpreted, 
express  the  historic  basis  of  relationship  upon  which 
the  associations  have  developed  and  have  been  so 
abundantly  blessed  of  God. 

"Second. — Radical  organic  changes  in  the  polity  of 
the  associations  are  neither  necessary  nor  desirable. 

"Third. — Efficient  state  and  provincial  organiza- 
tions have  long  been  recognized  as  essential  factors 

76 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

in  the  successful  development  of  the  local  associa- 
tion, and  an  important  part  of  the  work  of  the  Inter- 
national Committee  has  been  to  establish  and  assist 
these  organizations.  This  policy  becomes  increas- 
ingly important  with  the  development  of  the  associa- 
tion work.  It  is,  therefore,  the  duty  of  the  agents 
of  the  International  Committee,  when  working  in 
fields  having  state  or  provincial  organizations,  to 
aid  and  strengthen  those  organizations.  It  is  equally 
the  duty  of  the  agents  of  the  state  and  provincial 
organizations  to  support  and  aid  the  International 
Committee  in  its  relation  to  the  associations  and  in 
its  work  for  the  North  American  association  brother- 
hood. 

"Fourth. — The  local  association,  as  the  independ- 
ent unit,  has  the  right  to  apply  for  aid  to  either 
supervising  agency,  and  it  is  the  right  of  each  agency 
of  supervision  to  respond  directly  to  the  calls  of  the 
local  associations. 

' '  It  is  desirable  that  the  local  associations  should 
employ  the  State  Committee  to  the  largest  practi- 
cable extent  in  close  supervision  of  the  work. 

1 '  To  this  end  and  for  the  harmonious  development 
and  administration  of  the  whole  work,  save  in  ex- 
ceptional cases,  the  International  Committee  should 
respond  to  applications  from  the  local  associations 
in  conference  and  cooperation  with  the  State  Com- 
mittee. The  right  of  the  local  association,  however, 
to  apply  for  and  receive  aid  from  either  supervisory 
agency  should  not  be  denied  or  abridged. 

"Fifth. — The  historic  and  well-settled  autonomy 

77 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

and  independence  of  the  local  association  should 
and  will  continue  unquestioned;  and  nothing  in 
this  report  shall  be  construed  as  in  any  way  inter- 
fering with  the  right  of  the  local  association  to  or- 
ganize branches  of  its  own  in  any  department. 

'■'Sixth. — State,  Provincial  or  International  Com- 
mittees may  in  exceptional  cases,  and  only  while 
necessary,  recognize  each  for  itself  provisional  rail- 
road, army  and  navy  associations,  and  also  (with 
the  consent  of  the  local  associations)  provisional 
industrial  and  city  associations,  at  points  having 
local  associations  with  which  for  the  time  being 
organic  relations  cannot  be  established  or  main- 
tained. 

"In  the  organization  of  associations  or  branches 
on  interstate  railroad  systems,  the  International 
Committee  should  treat  with  the  railroad  company 
and  assume  the  responsibility.  In  the  supervision 
of  the  work,  when  established,  the  same  rule  of 
conference  and  cooperation  with  State  and  Provin- 
cial Committees  shall  prevail  as  in  other  depart- 
ments of  association  work. 

"  Seventh. — It  is  desirable  that  all  local  association 
real  estate  be  held  either  in  fee  simple  or  leasehold 
by  the  local  association.  When  this  is  not  practi- 
cable, it  may  be  held  by  the  State,  Provincial  or 
International  Committees;  but  these  committees 
should  seek  to  transfer  the  same  as  soon  as  expe- 
dient to  local  associations.  This  policy  should  be 
made  plain  to  railroad  officials  when  leases  of  rail- 
road property  are  made,  and  to  carry  this  out  an 

78 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

assignment  clause  should,  when  possible,  be  incor- 
porated. 

' '  Eighth. — In  any  case  of  disagreement,  where  two 
agencies  of  supervision  are  unable  themselves  to 
arrive  at  a  satisfactory  settlement  and  where  the 
local  association,  as  the  court  of  final  appeal,  is  not 
directly  concerned  and  so  is  not  available,  the  ordi- 
nary principles  and  methods  of  arbitration  are  rec- 
ommended— namely,  each  party  to  appoint  an  arbi- 
trator and  these  two  to  appoint  a  third,  no  one  of 
whom  shall  be  a  salaried  officer  of  an  association, 
and  thereupon  the  three  to  hear  the  case  and  reach 
a  final  settlement,  the  costs  of  the  proceeding  to  be 
paid  as  the  arbitrators  or  a  majority  of  them  may 
determine." 

These  eight  declarations  are  consistent  with  their 
own  assertion  that  radical  changes  in  existing  asso- 
ciation polity  are  undesirable.  They  are  in  fact  an 
expansion  of  the  Grand  Rapids  Resolutions,  which 
they  reaffirm,  defining  more  successfully  because 
more  fully  what  had  been  gradually  found,  by  a 
usage  of  brotherly  consultation  and  cooperation,  to 
be  expedient  and  practicable  in  the  intercourse  of 
association  organizations,  local,  international,  state 
and  provincial. 

(5)  Growing  Fellow sliip  with  Association  Work 
the  World  Over 

With  the  world  brotherhood  points  of  contact  mul- 
tiplied in  number  and  importance  during  this  period, 
a.     Large  and  influential  delegations  from   North 

79 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

America  attended  the  World's  Conferences  of  the 
period,  and  gave  encouragement  and  support  to  the 
World's  Committee  in  its  work. 

b.  Mr.  James  Stokes  manifested  an  increasing 
interest  in  association  work  abroad.  Owing  to  his 
initiative  and  generous  cooperation,  the  associations 
in  Paris  and  Rome  secured  buildings  equipped  on 
the  American  plan.  A  successful  organization  of 
work  for  young  men  in  St.  Petersburg  was  also  es- 
tablished through  his  friendly  agency. 

c.  Association  buildings  on  the  American  plan 
were  erected  at  Berlin,  Paris,  Stockholm,  Geneva, 
Stuttgart,  and  other  European  cities,  and  at  Tokyo, 
Tientsin,  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  other  cities  of  Asia. 

d.  The  Student  Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign 
Missions  was  organized  in  1886,  enlisting  hundreds 
of  student  candidates  for  the  work  of  the  churches 
and  of  the  associations  in  non-Christian  lands.  More 
than  two  thousand  of  these  volunteers  are  already  at 
work  in  those  lands. 

e.  In  response  to  the  urgency  of  the  missionaries 
of  many  churches,  and  by  instruction  of  the  inter- 
national conventions,  beginning  with  that  of  1889, 
forty-five  international  secretaries  are  now  at  work 
in  Japan,  Korea,  China,  Hongkong,  India,  Ceylon, 
Argentine,  Brazil,  Mexico  and  Cuba. 

f.  The  World's  Student  Christian  Federation, 
owing  to  American  suggestion,  was  formed  in  1895 
at  Vadstena,  Sweden,  and  has  been  rapidly  extended, 
under  the  leadership  of  its  general  secretary,  John 
R.  Mott,  who  is  also  the  senior  student  secretary  of 

8o 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

the  International  Committee.  Already  university 
and  college  students  on  all  continents  are  united  in 
this  federation,  paralleling  the  parent  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  its  world  brotherhood, 
while  both  of  these  ecumenical  federations  of  young 
men  begin  to  give  reality  to  the  poet's  dream  of 
* '  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world. ' ' 


Si 


CHAPTER  VI.     SUMMARY    OF    THE    FIFTY 
YEARS  OF  FEDERATION 

Federation  Work  Has  Specialized  on  Concentra- 
tion upon  Work  for  Young  Men,  Training  Em- 
ployed Officers,  Control  by  Laymen,  Build- 
ings, Departments  of  Local  Work  and  Classes 
of  Young  Men.  Federation  Work,  State,  Pro- 
vincial and  International  and  Its  Financial 
Support  (Diagrams).     Objective  of  this  Work. 

1.    Specialization  the  Key  Word  in  Federation  Supervision 

This  rapid  historical  review  of  the  fifty  years  of 
federation — though  very  summary  in  its  treatment 
of  the  last  twenty  years — enables  us  to  seize  the 
main  trend  of  the  supervision  that  federation  has 
created.  It  is  a  supervision  that  has  been  slowly 
shaped  from  decade  to  decade  by  patient  and  thor- 
ough specializing  upon  those  features  of  the  work 
which  were  being  tested  in  the  crucible  of  associa- 
tion experience.  The  supervision  was  successful  as 
far  as  at  each  stage  of  progress  it  discerned  correctly 
and  grasped  vigilantly  the  best  features  of  the  work 
and  wisely  commended  them  to  associations  within 
reach  of  the  influence  which  its  resources  enabled  it 
to  exert. 

(1)     Concentration  Upon  Work  for  Young  Men 
In  the  first  convention,  fifty  years  ago,  the  ques- 
tion was  discussed :   ' '  Shall  the  associations  concen- 

82 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

trate  on  work  for  young  men  ?"  For  thirty  years 
this  continued  to  be  a  live  question.  At  first  the 
best  experience  of  the  best  associations  taught  that, 
while  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  work  for  young 
men,  various  forms  of  general  religious,  evangelistic 
and  philanthropic  effort  were  also  approved.  This 
was,  therefore,  the  best  message  which  in  those  early 
years  the  agency  of  supervision  brought  to  the 
associations. 

Five  years  later  (1859)  more  elaborate  discussion 
could  do  no  more  than  justify  this  conclusion.  After 
another  five  years  however  (1864)  concentration 
upon  work  for  young  men  began  to  be  more  insist- 
ently and  intelligently  urged.  This  was  due  in  part 
to  the  fact  that  the  stronger  associations  began  to 
secure  the  entire  energies  of  employed  experts  or 
secretaries  who  devoted  their  lives  to  this  distinctive 
association  work,  and  whose  succcess  led  to  a 
demand  for  specially  adapted  association  buildings. 
Under  these  new  conditions  the  best  experience 
of  the  best  associations  altered  its  verdict.  The 
very  beginnings  of  this  change  were  vigilantly  ob- 
served by  the  leaders  in  international  conventions. 
They  were  joined,  slowly  at  first,  by  state  and  pro- 
vincial organizations,  and  when  the  association 
movement  was  thirty  years  old  association  public 
sentiment  was  practically  unanimous  in  favor  of 
work  for  young  men  exclusively. 

(2)     On  Employed  Officers 

In  working  out  this  central  problem  vigilant  spe- 

83 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

cialization,  as  already  described,  discovered  and 
trained  the  needed  employed  experts — the  secre- 
taries, general,  physical,  educational,  religious,  and 
later  the  boys'  secretary. 

(3)  On  Control  by  Laymen.  Secretarialism  Dis- 
countenanced 

Accompanying  secretarial  specialization,  as  of 
equal  importance,  was  specialization  on  control  and 
leadership  in  the  associations  by  laymen  as  officers, 
directors  and  committeemen.  This  fundamental 
principle  of  association  administration  was  empha- 
sized in  the  discussions,  conduct  and  management 
of  the  international  convention,  and  in  the  work  of 
its  Committee.  No  employed  officer  has  ever  pre- 
sided at  an  international  convention.  In  1874  Mr. 
McBurney  was  chosen,  but  declined  to  serve.  The 
international  convention  has  also  set  the  example  of 
confining  its  officers  to  lay  delegates,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  recording  secretary.  The  principal  com- 
mittees of  the  convention  have  been  manned,  as  a 
rule,  by  laymen.  For  twenty-five  of  the  fifty 
years  of  the  convention,  the  chairman  of  its  Com- 
mittee was  Cephas  Brainerd,  whose  virile  lay  lead- 
ership of  the  international  administration  has  been 
already  mentioned. 

Lay  control  has  also  been  strongly  insisted  upon 
by  leaders  among  the  secretaries.  The  only  general 
secretary  who  served  as  a  member  of  the  Interna- 
tional Committee  was  Robert  R.  McBurney.  In 
1882,  at  the  meeting  of  the  general  secretaries'  con- 

84 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ference  for  the  continent,  of  which  he  was  the  leader 
during  all  its  early  history,  he  read  a  forcible  paper 
on  * '  Secretarialism  " — a  word  he  coined  to  express 
what  he  considered  a  usurpation  by  the  secretary  of 
that  leadership,  responsibility  and  management  of 
the  association  which  belongs  primarily  to  the  lay 
members,  officers  and  directors.  He  appealed  to 
and  successfully  enlisted  the  best  secretarial  senti- 
ment to  antagonize  "secretarialism." 

Fifteen  years  later — a  year  before  his  death — he 
prepared  and  read  before  the  secretaries'  conference 
of  1897,  another  forcible  paper  on  the  same  theme. 
The  vigorous  paragraph  on  "Secretarialism"  in  the 
"Association  Hand  Book,"  published  in  1892,  is 
from  his  pen. 

In  the  recent  discussion  of  important  questions 
relating  to  association  polity,  the  international  con- 
vention, as  the  parent  and  leading  agency  of  federa- 
tion, has  been  true  to  its  traditions  in  constituting 
its  Committee  of  Twenty-one  wholly  of  lay  leaders 
of  the  associations.  And  when  the  Jubilee  Conven- 
tion of  1904  met,  enrolling  more  delegates  than  any 
of  its  predecessors,  the  majority  of  these  were  lay 
delegates,  and  in  the  great  debate  of  the  convention 
all  but  two  of  the  speakers  chosen  to  advocate  the 
majority  and  minority  reports  of  the  Committee  of 
Twenty-one  were  also  lay  delegates. 

(4)     On  Association  Buildings 

Parallel  with  and  reinforcing  this  emphasis  on  the 
function  and  work  of  both  secretaries  and  laymen, 

85 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

has  been  supervisory  specialization  on  association 
buildings.  Every  improvement  in  successive  build- 
ings was  vigilantly  observed  and  registered  in  the 
international  office.  The  student  of  the  evolution  of 
these  buildings  can  discover  at  least  five  distinct 
steps  or  phases  of  development  with  specimens  of 
each  phase.  Buildings  satisfactory  at  the  time  of 
their  erection  have  disappeared  to  give  place  to  sub- 
stitutes far  better  adapted  to  modern  association 
uses.  This  development  from  good  to  better  and 
best  has  been  carefully  fostered  by  the  federation 
agencies.  In  the  city  of  Buffalo,  the  Jubilee  Con- 
vention of  1904  was  entertained  in  an  association 
building  which,  with  its  neighboring  and  abandoned 
predecessor  is  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  evo- 
lution here  described. 

(5)     On  Various  Features  of  Local  Work 

In  addition  to  the  four  features  already  enumer- 
ated there  has  been  a  corresponding  specialization 
on  various  departments  of  local  association  work: 
On  the  physical  department,  in  the  training  of  its 
employed  officers,  the  equipment  of  the  depart- 
ment, and  in  the  formation  of  the  Athletic  League ; 
On  the  educational  department,  resulting  in  higher 
educational  achievement  through  international  ex- 
aminations and  in  other  ways,  including  the  contri- 
bution, since  1883,  of  the  association  exhibit  as  an 
educational  agency  of  the  conventions ;  On  the  re- 
ligious work,  resulting  in  better  organized  and  more 
fruitful  evangelistic  work,  and  in  a  steady  develop- 

86 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ment  of  Bible  study  and  Bible  classes ;  On  the  boys' 
department,  securing  better  equipment,  committees 
of  management,  boys'  secretaries  and  some  boys' 
buildings. 

(6)  On  Work  among  Various  Classes  of  Young 
Men 

No  association  development  has  been  more  de- 
pendent upon  vigilant  supervision  than  the  growth 
of  associations  or  departments  or  branches  com- 
posed entirely  of  members  from  special  classes  of 
young  men.  Through  this  supervision  steady  pro- 
gress has  been  achieved  among  railroad  men,  stu- 
dents, Negro  and  Indian  young  men,  soldiers  and 
sailors,  miners,  lumbermen  and  young  men  of  other 
industrial  classes. 

(7)  Evolution  and  Preponderance  of  State  and 
Provincial  Supervision 

Accompanying  the  specialization  already  enumer- 
ated has  been  an  inductive  and  comparative  study 
of  the  state  and  provincial  organizations.  These 
were  formed  and  fostered  on  the  basis  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  international.  Competent  state  secre- 
taries were  sought.  Experiment  slowly  discovered 
the  conditions  of  successful  state  work.  On  the 
floor  of  the  international  convention  these  experi- 
ences were  compared.  Diligent  effort  by  the  inter- 
national and  other  federation  workers  made  the  best 
experience  of  the  best  state,  provincial,  metropolitan 
and  county  organizations  the  property  of  all. 

In  all  this  specialization  by  the  federation  agencies, 

87 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

though  the  international  organization  was  first  in  the 
field  as  the  founder  and  fosterer  of  the  state  organi- 
zation, still  the  majority  of  supervision  passes  inev- 
itably to  the  state  and  provincial  organizations. 
Most  of  the  lines  of  specialization  already  enumer- 
ated have  been  followed  by  the  state  organizations, 
each  according  to  its  resources.  But,  with  the 
growth  of  the  whole  brotherhood  and  its  work,  the 
international  work  must  also  increase,  at  a  steady 
though  less  rapid  pace.  For  experience  has  shown 
that  to  most  if  not  all  lines  of  supervision  the 
international  agency  seems  to  have  a  permanent 
and  helpful  relation  supplemental  to  and  cooperative 
with  that  of  the  state  and  provincial.  This  is  occa- 
sioned in  the  very  nature  of  things  by  the  value  of 
an  international  outlook  over  the  whole  field  in  the 
development  of  every  phase  of  association  work. 
The  local  association  demands  the  direct  benefit  of 
this  international  outlook  and  is  justly  entitled  to  it. 
But  the  aggregate  of  state  and  provincial  super- 
vision, when  its  resources  are  fully  developed,  must 
exceed  more  and  more  the  total  of  international 
supervision.  Each  is,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
necessary  to  the  highest  usefulness  of  the  other,  and 
both  should  be  humble  servants  and  direct  helpers 
of  local  associations,  for  the  welfare  of  which  they 
both  exist. 


S3 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

Expenditures   for    (1)    International    (2)  State 
and  Provincial  Work 

1  S7A  J  $  14<500 

Ib/b-j      16,700-^— 

1  qqc  3  $  38,000  -"— -■ ~™ -  ~"~— - 
J-oOO  )     39,000  — ^_ 

1896]faffl 


General  RR.,  stu., 

work  colored 


i897|$iS;SS 

1  qoq  J  $163,733 
loyO)    133,310 

1899  {SSSS 

1900 1*!|:|? 

1901  \*%& 
1903  j$!S 


General  RR.,  stu.,  Army 

work  colored  and  Navy 


General  Jub.         RR.,  stu.,  Army 

work  Conv.         colored  and  Navy 


General  RR,  stu.,  Army 

work  colored  and  Navy 


General  RR.,  stu.,  Army 

work  col.,  indus.         and  Navy 


These  figures  indicate  the  steady  increase  during 
twenty-seven  years  of  the  work  of  association  super- 
vision in  North  America.  The  resources  of  the  In- 
ternational Committee  enabled  it  in  1904  to  maintain 
on  this  field  forty-five  employed  officers  while  thirty 
of  the  thirty- two  State  and  Provincial  Committees 
employed  eighty- four.  But  ten  of  these  committees 
employ   only  one  secretary,   nine  employ  two,  ten 

89 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

between  three  and  six  and  one  seven.  This  uneven 
distribution  of  state  and  provincial  secretaries  em- 
phasizes an  important  part  of  the  work  of  inter- 
national supervision  in  its  relation  of  cooperation 
with  the  State  and  Provincial  Committees. 

The  steady  increase  of  supervision,  though  not  yet 
commensurate  with  the  need  of  the  entire  brother- 
hood, has  been  attended  with  such  benefit  to  the 
associations  that  in  their  successive  conventions — in- 
ternational, state  and  provincial — they  have  year  by 
year  reviewed  the  work,  and  enthusiastically  voted 
its  continuance. 

(8)  Specialization  within  the  International  Or- 
ganization and  Work 

To  accomplish  effective  work  on  these  varied  lines 
of  association  growth,  state,  local  and  departmental, 
it  was  necessary  for  the  parent  federation  agency  to 
specialize  upon  itself  and  its  own  work,  and  it  was 
equally  necessary  for  its  children,  the  state  and  pro- 
vincial conventions,  to  make  the  same  endeavor. 

a.  In  the  convention  program  and  topics,  empha- 
sis was  laid  in  the  early  international  conventions 
upon  those  details  of  local  work  which  a  review  of 
the  whole  field  pointed  out  as  most  needed.  In  the 
beginning  it  was  both  work  for  young  men  and  such 
other  work  as  the  best  association  public  opinion  ap- 
proved. In  the  second  period  topics  relating  to 
work  for  young  men  were  more  fully  discussed. 

Beginning  in  1871  special  stress  was  laid  upon 
the  Bible  topic.     One  full  session  was  devoted  to 

90 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

this  subject  from  convention  to  convention  and 
decade  to  decade,  with  decided  effect  upon  the  Bible 
work  of  the  associations. 

Then  as  the  state  organizations  grew  in  number 
and  influence,  the  different  phases  of  state  work 
were  discussed  on  the  platform  of  the  international 
convention,  while  the  more  frequent  and  numerous 
state  conventions  undertook  topics  relating  to  the 
details  and  development  of  the  local  association 
work. 

As  the  work  intrusted  to  the  Committee  increased 
in  size  and  importance,  and  departments  and  secre- 
taries were  added,  the  international  work  itself 
became  the  theme  of  discussion,  and  the  field,  stu- 
dent, railroad,  German,  colored,  army  and  navy, 
and  boys'  departments  were  in  turn  presented. 

b.  In  the  beginning  the  Committee  expected 
from  international  secretaries  chiefly  study  of  the 
association  work,  both  local  and  state,  as  a  unit. 
But  as  the  work  was  distributed  into  sharply  defined 
organizations  of  special  classes  of  young  men,  quali- 
fied secretaries  were  sought  and  trained  to  specialize 
on  work  for  each  class.  Later,  as  departments 
within  the  individual  associations  were  differen- 
tiated, for  each  of  these  departments  international 
secretaries  were  obtained.  To  field  secretaries  of 
the  International  Committee  were  gradually  assigned 
various  sections  of  the  country,  each  secretary  re- 
siding in  a  convenient  city  of  the  section  assigned 
to  him.  From  the  beginning  the  senior  secretary 
of  the  Committee,    Mr.    Weidensall,   was   occupied 

91 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

chiefly,  but  not  exclusively,  at  the  West.  But  since 
1889,  under  the  leadership  of  Charles  K.  Ober,  a 
more  systematic  distribution  of  field  secretaries  to 
different  sections  of  the  country  has  been  success- 
fully accomplished. 

c.  In  further  specialization  and  to  facilitate  the 
administration  of  its  work,  the  Committee  began  to 
distribute  its  own  members  into  subcommittees  as 
early  as  1884,  each  subcommittee  having  in  charge 
the  secretary  or  secretaries  at  work  in  its  depart- 
ment. This  arrangement  has  caused  a  wise  distribu- 
tion and  concentration  within  the  membership  of 
the  Committee,  promoting  also  the  efficiency  of 
each  subcommittee  and  secretary. 

The  latest  distribution  to  subcommittees  was  re- 
ported to  the  convention  of  1904.  It  was  occasioned 
by  the  growth  of  the  work  on  the  foreign  mission 
field  and  involved  the  establishment  of  a  foreign  work 
department  coordinate  with  the  home  work  depart- 
ment and  administered  through  a  group  of  subcom- 
mittees. 

d.  In  this  distribution  of  responsibility  it  became 
necessary  to  make  some  division  of  the  work  of 
oversight  intrusted  to  the  general  secretary  and  two 
associates  were  assigned  to  him,  one,  C.  J.  Hicks, 
in  the  administration  of  the  home  and  another, 
John  R.  Mott,  in  the  administration  of  the  foreign 
field. 


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First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

(9)  Financial  Support  of  Federation  work — the 
Federation  Tenth 

a.  All  must  agree  that  the  federation  work  neces- 
sarily depends  upon  adequate  financial  support  for 
existence  and  development.  How  shall  the  money 
be  secured  to  sustain  it?  This  has  always  been  a 
question  of  prime  importance.  During  the  first 
twenty  years,  while  the  expenses  were  comparatively 
small,  solicitation  at  the  international  conventions 
and  the  sums  pledged  and  secured  by  the  delegates 
proved  sufficient. 

But  thirty  years  ago,  the  work  of  federation, 
international,  state  and  provincial,  began  to  call  for 
ten  per  cent  of  the  total  aggregate  expenditure  for 
association  work  in  North  America.  While  this  ex- 
penditure of  what  might  be  called  the  federation 
tenth  was  found  to  be  wise  and  desirable,  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  sum  needed  could  be  expected  from 
the  conventions  and  their  delegates.  Each  conven- 
tion, therefore,  after  approving  the  work  reported 
and  the  work  proposed,  authorized  the  expense  in- 
volved up  to  a  sum  always  definitely  named  but  never 
definitely  pledged  at  the  convention.  The  problem 
of  securing  the  needed  balance  was  therefore  re- 
ferred to  the  International  Committee  and  later  by 
the  state  and  provincial  conventions  to  their  Com- 
mittees to  work  out  its  solution,  for  convention 
authorization  of  the  work  was  always  conditioned  on 
the  securing  by  the  convention's  committee  of  this 
balance. 

94 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

By  patient  and  persistent  endeavor,  a  constituenc 
of  donors  was  built  up  on  the  foundation  of  the  con- 
tributions made  at  the  international  convention. 
Expenditure  for  the  work  upon  the  North  American 
field  authorized  by  this  convention  steadily  increased 
from  $14,500  in  1876  to  $153,796  in  1903,  and  the 
number  of  contributors  from  a  few  hundred  to  nearly 
six  thousand. 

b.  Such  partial  endowment  of  international  and 
state  organizations  as  will  give  stability  to  their  work 
without  impairing  their  substantial  dependence  upon 
annual  contributions  has  been  secured  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Committee  in  the  form  of  a  state  as- 
sociation building  in  Boston,  and  by  the  International 
Committee  in  the  form  of  its  jubilee  fund  of  a 
million  dollars.  Several  other  State  Committees 
have  taken  steps  in  the  same  direction. 

When  work  upon  the  foreign  mission  field  was 
authorized  by  the  convention  of  1889  similar  condi- 
tions as  to  expenditure  for  this  work  were  pre- 
scribed, with  instruction  to  create  a  separate  treasury. 
Steadily  this  expenditure  has  increased  from  $3,600 
in  1889,  to  $87,320  in  1903. 

Upon  similar  lines  of  authorization  by  state  and 
provincial  conventions  and  solicitation  by  their  Com- 
mittees, often  assisted  by  international  secretaries, 
the  expenses  of  state  and  provincial  supervision 
have  steadily  increased  from  $16,700  in  1876  to 
$185,990  in  1903.  In  this  as  in  all  other  convention 
methods  the  financial  experience  of  the  International 
Committee  has   carried  suggestion  to  the  state  con- 

95 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

ventions  and  has  been  still  further  tested  and  modi- 
fied in  the  crucible  of  their  experience. 

It  would  be  a  great  relief  and  release  for  Interna- 
tional, State  and  Provincial  Committees  if  this  money 
and  percentage  were  provided  by  the  various  con- 
ventions or  by  direct  contributions  from  the  treas- 
uries of  the  associations.  But  on  the  contrary, 
associations  and  conventions  have  agreed  in  saying 
to  International  and  State  Committees  :  "  You  must 
engage  in  the  same  struggle  for  financial  existence 
that  we  are  ourselves  compelled  to  engage  in.  We 
will  give  you  what  approval,  authorization  and  other 
help  we  can,  but  the  bulk  of  your  support  you  must 
first  deserve  and  then  seek  diligently  for  the  money 
you  need  from  those  whom  you  can  cause  to  see 
and  acknowledge  that  you  deserve  it  from  them  " 
Whatever  can  be  said  against  it,  one  thing  can 
certainly  be  said  in  favor  of  this  method  :  It  has 
caused  the  federation  work  of  supervision  in  all  its 
varied  phases  to  stand  upon  its  merits  and  has  made 
its  growth  dependent  upon  its  good  behavior. 

(2)     Main  Objective  of  all  Federation  Work 

But  the  main  objective  of  federation  supervision  is 
not  to  build  up  itself.  Self-preservation  and  self -im- 
provement have  indeed  been  necessary  to  its  highest 
efficiency.  But  it  is  true  to  itself  and  its  mission  only 
when  its  chief  objective  is  to  build  up  and  increase 
on  its  field  the  number  and  efficiency  of  independent, 
growing  local  associations  of  many  classes  of  young 
men.     This  growth  in  the  number  of  strong  associa- 

96 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

tions  and  in  the  strength  of  each  has  been  steadily- 
realized  during  the  fifty  years  of  federation.  The 
supervisory  agencies  have  grown  steadily,  but  not 
so  steadily  and  rapidly  as  the  local  associations.  In 
striking  illustration  of  such  comparative  growth, 
contrast  the  employed  force  and  annual  expenditure 
of  the  International  Committee  and  that  of  the  New 
York  City  association,  located  in  only  two  boroughs 
of  Greater  New  York.  During  all  these  fifty  years 
from  decade  to  decade  the  annual  expenditure  of 
this  one  principal  city  association  and  the  number 
of  its  employed  officers  have  exceeded  the  com- 
bined annual  expenditure  and  secretarial  force  of 
the  International  and  the  New  York  State  Com- 
mittees, even  when  to  the  expenditure  and  force  of 
international  secretaries  on  the  home  field,  are 
added  the  expenses  on  the  foreign  field  with  its 
thirty-five  secretaries.  The  endowment  of  this  one 
local  association  is  nearly  threefold  that  of  the  In- 
ternational and  New  York  State  Committees.  This 
comparison  takes  no  account  of  the  expenses  and 
endowment  of  the  association  in  Brooklyn,  which  is 
a  part  of  Greater  New  York.  This  comparison 
seems  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
a  very  large  percentage  of  the  support  of  both  the 
international  and  the  New  York  state  work  has  come 
from  the  friends  of  this  supervisory  work  in  these 
two  boroughs  of  New  York  City.  Here,  if  anywhere, 
therefore,  the  support  of  federation  work  might  have 
proved  a  check  upon  local  association  development. 
It  should  also  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  rela- 

97 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

tively  to  other  city  associations  the  New  York  asso- 
ciation has  successfully  maintained  that  leadership 
of  them  all  to  which  it  is  justly  entitled  by  the  fact  of 
its  location  in  the  chief  metropolis  of  the  continent. 

Not  a  few  strong  city  associations  owe  their 
present  strength  to  timely  help  from  the  federation 
agencies  in  the  crises  of  their  history.  In  these 
times  of  need  the  better  experience  of  stronger  asso- 
ciations has  been  so  applied  to  their  case  that  their 
present  standing  and  efficiency  have  resulted. 

In  the  beginning  there  was  apprehension  lest 
federation  might  mean  not  unselfish  help  and 
strengthening  of  local  associations,  but  centraliza- 
tion and  building  up  the  federation  agency  at  the 
expense  of  the  local  associations.  To  this  apprehen- 
sion further  consideration  should  now  be  given. 


98 


CHAPTER   VII.     CONCERNING    CENTRALI- 
ZATION 

Advisory  Relation  of  Federation  Agencies. 
Their  Lack  of  Legal  or  Governmental  Power 
or  Control.  Superior  Resources  of  Individual 
Local  Associations. 

In  the  growth  and  influence  of  federation  agen- 
cies has  this  dangerous  centralization  been  created? 
Some  have  apprehended  this,  but  there  is  no  sufficient 
evidence  that  any  such  centralization  or  imperialism 
really  exists. 

The  relation  of  the  federation  committees  to 
all  but  a  small  number  of  the  individual  as- 
sociations is  only  advisory.*  It  is  not  in  any  sense 
compulsory.  At  each  recurring  convention  the 
whole  business  of  the  International  or  State  Com- 
mittee is  open,  and  every  convention  in  its  turn  has 
the  right  and  power  to  issue  peremptory  instructions 
and  to  elect  a  quota  of  the  members  of  the  Committee. 

A  group  of  Christian  young  men  in  any  place  is 
free  to  organize  an  association.  They  are  not 
obliged  to  solicit  aid  from  a  State  or  International 
Committee.  No  association  has  need  of  a  charter 
from  the  convention  or  its  Committee,  nor  is  any  as- 
sociation obliged  to  send  delegates  to  an  international 
or  state  convention ;  neither  has  any  convention  any 

*Polity  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  page  34. 

99 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

power  over  the  local  association.  It  is  indeed  the 
duty  of  the  International  Committee  to  invite  all  such 
organizations  as  are  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions within  the  definition  fixed  by  the  convention 
to  send  delegates.  But  neither  convention  nor  com- 
mittee has  power  in  respect  to  delegates,  save  the 
power  of  determining  whether  an  association  is  with- 
in the  definition  and  the  number  of  delegates  to 
which  it  is  entitled. 

As  a  matter  of  constitutional  law  it  is  not  possible 
for  the  International  or  State  Committee,  as  now 
constituted,  or  the  secretaries  of  either  to  accom- 
plish a  centralization  by  virtue  of  which  governmen- 
tal power  or  control  is  exercised;  but  "  Two  of  the 
things  which  constitute  power,  morally  speaking," 
it  has  been  correctly  said,  ''inhere  in  the  work  of 
these  federation  committees.  (1)  The  power  which 
comes  from  effective  administration,  which,  as  long 
as  it  is  honest  and  successful,  will  have  the  influence 
which  comes  from  such  work ;  and  (2)  the  possession 
and  use  of  money  in  administration,  with  the  ability 
to  deserve  and  collect  it  from  those  who  give  it  vol- 
untarily for  the  work.  But  the  apprehension  about 
centralization  seems  to  rest  upon  the  assumption 
that  the  federation  agencies  have  more  than  this  in- 
fluence and  possess  power  as  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  has  power.  The  facts  do  not  justify 
this  assumption. " 

From  another  point  of  view  it  has  been  remarked 
that  the  dependence  of  these  committees  upon  their 
good  behavior  and  good  work  is  apparent:   "The  in- 

ioo 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

come  roll  of  the  agencies  of  supervision  shows  that  a 
very  large  portion  of  the  money  comes  from  a  cer- 
tain number  of  donors  who  are  in  a  personal  relation 
to  the  Committees,  and  whose  subscriptions  are  se- 
cured by  them  only  because  their  work  commends 
it  to  their  benevolent  sympathy.  Let  the  work  fail 
to  do  this  and  its  influence  or  so-called  power  is 
gone." 

This  apprehension  also  disappears  when  the  growth 
of  the  federation  agencies  is  compared,  as  already 
suggested,  with  the  greater  development  of  the  local 
organizations.  The  permanent  property  of  the  local 
associations  in  the  two  principal  cities,  New  York 
and  Chicago,  amounts  to  over  three  millions  in  one 
and  over  two  millions  in  the  other  city.  The  growth 
in  membership  and  usefulness  has  also  been  far  be- 
yond what  in  the  beginning  was  anticipated.  So 
that,  as  already  stated,  the  resources  and  annual  ex- 
penditure of  the  New  York  association  alone — not 
including  that  of  Brooklyn — exceeds  the  combined 
expenditure  of  the  international  and  New  York  state 
organizations.  Similar  association  growth  has  been 
realized  in  other  large  cities,  including  those  in  which 
the  metropolitan  organizations  are  located.  This 
growth  has  been  attended  by  great  increase  of  in- 
fluence and  power  to  benefit  young  men,  and  in  its 
turn  has  excited  an  apprehension  and  criticism  from 
an  ecclesiastical  point  of  view  not  unlike  the  fear 
concerning  centralization  to  which  reference  has 
been  made.  Some  who  are  solicitous  for  the  in- 
terests of  the  churches  have  discerned  in  the  growth 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

of  these  large  city  associations  a  dangerous  ten- 
dency to  draw  from  the  support  and  influence  of  the 
churches.  But  intelligent  friends  of  both  church  and 
association  agree  that  the  growing  strength  and  in- 
fluence of  these  city  associations  do  not  menace  but 
aggrandize  the  churches  and  add  to  their  constitu- 
ency. The  tendency  is  not  dangerous  because  the 
growing  influence  of  these  city  associations — their 
power  to  bestow  benefit  upon  young  men — is  bene- 
ficial to  church  and  community.  A  similar  conclu- 
sion concerning  the  growth  of  the  international  and 
state  organizations  is  justified  by  the  fact  that  this 
growth  results  from  decade  to  decade  in  increasing 
the  number  and  developing  the  strength  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  local  associations,  without  interfering 
with  their  independence. 


I02 


CHAPTER     VIII.     THE    VALUE     OF    ASSO- 
CIATION FEDERATION 

Shown  by  the  Many  Transient  Features  of  the 
Local  Associations,  by  the  Price  PaiD  for  Su- 
pervision   AND    BY    THE   GROWTH   OF    CONVENTIONS 

and  Conferences.     The  Influence  and  Results 
of  International  Conventions. 

This  outlook  over  the  half  century  makes  deep 
impression  of  the  value  of  federation  work. 

1.  The  transiency  of  many  features  of  the  indi- 
vidual associations  emphasizes  the  value  of  this  su- 
pervision and  constitutes  a  strong  reason  for  its 
exercise. 

(1)  Consider  how  many  transient  elements  exist 
in  the  membership,  management  and  working  force 
of  the  local  organization.  Absent  yourself  for  six 
months  from  the  association  building  and  you  enter 
it  a  comparative  stranger.  The  member  of  a  church 
joins  for  his  life.  His  family  unite  with  him  in 
finding  a  home  there.  Even  the  member  of  a  club, 
while  he  does  not  bring  his  family  to  it,  is  a  more 
stable  factor  than  the  average  young  man  who  joins 
the  association  as  a  working  member,  for  the  desti- 
nation to  which  this  young  man  is  being  ever  pointed 
by  the  association  is  the  church,  where  he  is  always 
welcomed  and  is  eventually,  in  most  cases,  absorbed. 
In  the  student  associations  the  entire  board  of  offi- 
cers   disappears   at   the   end  of  each  year  and  the 

103 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

members  all  tarry  for  only  the  few  years  of  student 
life,  graduating  rapidly  into  the  young  manhood  of 
our  cities  and  towns. 

(2)  A  similar  transiency  has  characterized  the  sec- 
retaryship of  most  of  the  associations  during  the  past 
thirty  years.  A  study  of  the  membership  of  boards 
of  directors  and  working  committees,  where  a  more 
stable  element  might  be  expected,  reveals  like 
transient  features.  These  facts  emphasize  the 
necessity  for  the  agency  of  supervision. 

(3)  The  metropolitan  organizations  also  consti- 
tute a  striking  testimony  to  this  need  of  supervision. 
For  their  central  boards  and  metropolitan  secreta- 
ries are  simply  the  segregation  to  supervision  of  the 
best  and  most  experienced  directors  and  secretaries 
who  can  be  commanded  for  the  work  in  these  city 
centers. 

Granted  the  fact  of  this  transiency  and  the  infer- 
ence is  justified  that  the  very  existence  of  the  or- 
ganization, and  certainly  its  growth  and  develop- 
ment, demand  agencies  of  incessant  and  vigilant 
supervision.  When  visitors  from  abroad  and  other 
students  of  the  associations  are  asked  to  account  for 
the  leadership  in  resources  and  efficiency  of  the 
North  American  brotherhood,  a  reply  often  given 
by  these  friends  is  that  this  is  due  to  the  early  for- 
mation and  steady  growth  of  the  international  and 
state  agencies  of  supervision. 

2.  The  price  paid  for  federation  effort  in  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  expended  for  the  entire  associa- 
tion work  in  North  America  is  another  strong  testi- 

104 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

mony  to  the  great  value  of  federation  effort.  As 
already  stated,  this  has  been  nearly  ten  per  cent  of 
the  aggregate  expenditure  for  association  work  on 
this  continent.  It  might  be  correctly  termed  the  in- 
dispensable federation  tenth. 

3.  In  conclusion,  from  the  outlook  of  an  inter- 
national convention  it  is  certainly  appropriate  to 
point  out  as  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  testimonies 
to  the  value  of  association  federation  the  accelerat- 
ing growth  in  number  and  helpful  influence  of  as- 
sociation conventions  and  conferences.  Of  all  these 
gatherings  in  North  America  the  international  con- 
vention is  the  parent.  It  was  also  the  forerunner 
and  promoted  the  origin  of  association  conventions 
on  other  continents. 

(1)  For  the  first  twelve  years  (1854-1866)  only 
this  one  convention  was  held  in  North  America  and 
it  met  ten  times  in  these  twelve  years. 

(2)  In  the  next  period  of  seventeen  years  (1866- 
1883)  the  growth  of  the  state  and  provincial  organi- 
zations was  such  that  at  its  close  twenty-five  met 
annually,  so  that  some  300  state  and  provincial 
meetings  were  held  during  the  period,  and  these  in 
turn  called  together  a  much  larger  number  of  dis- 
trict and  other  conferences.  A  secretaries'  confer- 
ence met  annually  in  many  states.  College,  rail- 
road and  colored  men's  conferences  multiplied. 
Thus  conferences  increased  a  hundred-fold  in  this 
period. 

(3)  In  the  last  period  of  twenty-one  years,  while 
the  international  and  a  few  state  conventions  have 

105 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

become  biennial,  to  all  the  above  named  meetings 
have  been  added  student  summer  schools,  the  con- 
vention of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  group 
conferences  of  secretaries  of  city  and  metropolitan 
organizations  and  their  environment,  conferences  in 
the  interests  of  Bible  work,  physical  work,  boys' 
work  and  county  work. 

Federation  life  and  activity,  quickened  by  the  agen- 
cies of  supervision  and  specialization,  get  ever  in- 
creasing expression  in  this  great  variety  of  meetings 
in  the  interests  of  all  departments  of  the  work,  and 
these  departments  respond  to  such  treatment  by 
growing  in  the  quality  and  quantity  of  what  they 
accomplish.  This  is  to  be  expected,  for  federation, 
fraternity  and  brotherly  supervision  are  modes  of 
obeying  the  second  great  commandment,  "  Love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself ,"  and  also  the  new  command- 
ment, uttered  so  repeatedly  by  our  Lord  in  His 
latest  recorded  words :  "  Love  one  another,  as  I  have 
loved  you." 

(4)  It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  good 
influence  exerted  by  the  international  conventions. 
Benefit  from  them  has  been  realized  throughout 
the  brotherhood.  How  many  discouraged  workers 
have  been  cheered !  How  many  ignorant  ones  have 
been  instructed !  How  many  leaders  for  the  home 
work  have  been  secured!  How  many  donors  to  all 
parts  of  the  work  have  been  enlisted !  How  many 
discussions  at  critical  times  have  given  wise  direction 
to  association  public  sentiment,  better  form  to  asso- 
ciation work,  and  timely  check  to  undesirable  ten- 

106 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

dencies!  Many  conventions  also  are  prominent  as 
revivalistic  in  their  effect  upon  the  communities 
where  they  assemble.  All  have  exerted  blessed 
evangelistic  influence.  The  use  of  Sunday  as  the 
final  farewell  day,  when  delegates  are  heard  in  all 
the  churches,  in  their  own  meeting  for  young 
men  and  in  the  farewell  service,  has  greatly  contri- 
buted to  evangelistic  results.  Whatever  drift  of  in- 
dividual associations  and  individual  workers  away 
from  the  association's  central  religious  purpose  may 
have  been  detected,  deplored  or  criticised,  no  one 
could  attend  these  conventions  without  feeling  that 
in  them  association  federation  provided  a  strong  re- 
ligious corrective,  keeping  warm  and  loyal  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  brotherhood  for  the  promotion  of  its 
central  purpose. 

Within  the  very  sessions  of  this  international  con- 
vention and  its  many  children  by  the  actual  conver- 
sion of  young  men  has  been  incessantly  fulfilled  the 
highest  purpose  of  association  work.  This  feature 
alone  has  given  to  these  meetings  as  an  agency  of 
federation  a  value  beyond  estimate.  At  the  close 
of  the  first  fifty  years  what  most  signalized  the  first 
Jubilee  Convention  at  Boston  in  1901?  The  asso- 
ciation exhibit,  wonderful  and  thorough,  conspicuous 
and  spectacular?  Or  the  foreign  delegation  from 
many  lands  and  languages,  with  the  presence  and 
greeting  of  the  son  of  George  Williams?  Or  the 
able  discussion  of  great  themes  concerning  our 
work  and  its  progress?  Was  it  not  most  characteris- 
tically that  great  young  men's  meeting  on  the  Lord's 

107 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

day,  in  which  scores  were  brought  into  the  faith, 
life  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ?  That  meeting 
struck  the  note  of  happiest  resemblance  between  the 
Jubilee  Convention  and  the  long  line  of  its  prede- 
cessors. 

And  in  Buffalo  at  the  second  Jubilee  Convention, 
so  different  from  the  first  in  many  respects,  made 
memorable  by  an  unparalleled  contention  of  opinion 
as  to  methods  of  administration  and  equally  by  a 
triumph  of  the  spirit  of  brotherly  fellowship,  on  the 
closing  farewell  Lord's  day  the  meeting  for  young 
men  was  attended  by  over  four  thousand  and  was 
followed  by  the  same  blessed  results  as  were  realized 
at  the  Boston  convention  and  its  predecessors,  giv- 
ing fresh  demonstration  of  loyal  allegiance  to  Him 
who  is  the  bond  of  our  fellowship,  the  goal  of  our 
work,  the  inspirer  of  our  enthusiasm,  and  whose 
benediction  and  approval  is  the  highest  hope  of  all 
our  association  endeavor. 


108 


CHAPTER    IX.     SUMMARY 

These  fifty  years  of  association  cooperation  in 
North  America  have  resulted  in  showing  that : 

1.  Federation  and  its  agencies  have  constituted 
a  strong  international  bond  of  fellowship  and  union 
of  effort  between  the  associations ;  and  also 

2.  Have  defined  as  the  association  objective  a 
work  by  young  men  for  young  men,  maintaining 
and  developing  this  objective  by  fostering 

(1)  Each  department  of  this  all-round  work, 
physical  and  educational,  social  and  religious; 

(2)  Leadership  and  control  by  laymen; 

(3)  Training  and  locating  employed  officers ; 

(4)  Planning  and  erecting  association  buildings ; 

(5)  Organizing  young  men  of  many  classes  to 
seek  each  the  welfare  of  the  young  men  of  its  own 
class. 

(6)  Fellowship  with  a  world  brotherhood 

(a)  Through  a  World's  Conference   and   its 

Committee,  and 

(b)  By   planting   in   non-Christian   nations 

associations  with  federation  agencies 
of  their  own. 

3.  While  the  main  objective  has  been  the  growth 
of  the  individual  associations,  successful  effort  has 
been  made  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  federa- 
tion agencies  themselves  : 

(1)  By  wisely  multiplying  conventions  and  con- 
ferences,  state  and  provincial,  district  and  county, 

109 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

student  and  railroad,  developing  each  group,  de- 
partment and  branch;  and  by  so  developing  the 
state  and  provincial  organizations  that  the  aggre- 
gate of  their  supervision  now  exceeds  that  of  the 
international  on  its  home  field. 

(2)  By  providing  for  international,  state  and 
provincial  work  an  amount  of  money  aggregating 
ten  per  cent  of  the  total  expenditure  for  association 
work. 

4.  Thus  the  North  American  associations  in 
bearing  one  another's  burdens — the  strong  bearing 
the  infirmities  of  the  weak — have  so  "  fulfilled  the 
law  of  Christ"  that  they  are  in  turn  receiving  ful- 
fillment of  the  promise  to  those  who  obey  this  com- 
mandment of  brotherly  fellowship. 

These  first  fifty  years  of  association  federation 
have  justified  the  brightest  hopes  of  the  men  who 
came  together  half  a  century  ago  to  constitute  the 
first  convention.  The  good  results  they  prayed  for 
have  been  gradually  realized  in  a  brotherhood  of  as- 
sociations now  stronger,  more  numerous  and  aggres- 
sive in  all  lines  of  work  for  young  men  than  ever  be- 
fore, and  intelligently  testifying  to  federation  work 
as  one  of  the  most  influential  factors  in  promoting 
this  marvelous  progress. 

Differences  of  opinion  about  methods  exist — have 
always  existed,  with  more  or  less  contention.  But 
the  spirit  of  unity,  through  the  divine  presence  and 
help,  has  in  every  discussion  steadily  and  invariably 
prevailed.     The  achievements  of  the  past  are  secure, 


First  Fifty  Years  of  Federation 

wrought  out  by  Him  whose  name  the  association 
bears,  and  by  whose  blessing  all  has  been  accom- 
plished. Invoking  His  continued  favor  and  leader- 
ship, depending  on  His  forgiving  love  and  the  in- 
dwelling might  of  His  cooperation,  seeking  that 
unity  in  Him  which  alone  brings  unity  with  one  an- 
other, we  look  forward  to  a  second  half-century  of 
federation,  confident  that  its  years  will  witness  an 
ever  widening  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
among  young  men  at  home  and  abroad,  among  all 
classes  and  races,  and  upon  every  continent. 


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SUPPLEMENT 

EXTRACTS  FROM 

The    Early  Story   of  the  Confederation  'of 

the    North    American    Young 

Men's    Christian 

Associations 

By  REV.  WILLIAM   CHAUNCY  LANGDON,  D.  D. 


From  the    Tear  Book  of  1888 


For  some  weeks  after  our  organization  in  Washington  was 
formed,  on  June  29,  1852,  we  were  ourselves  unaware  that  there 
was,  in  the  United  States,  any  other  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  save  only  that  of  Boston ;  and  these  associations 
were  all  equally  unaware  of  each  other.  In  Boston  alone  was 
it  known  that  there  had  already  been  organized  seven  such  so- 
cieties. A  visit  to  that  city,  early  in  August,  brought  the  fact 
to  my  knowledge.  I  wrote  at  once  to  the  several  secretaries  of 
all  these  societies;  and,  at  a  special  meeting  of  our  own  asso- 
ciation, held  on  September  14,  1852 — a  meeting  referred  to  in 
my  diary  as  "  most  interesting  and  animated" — I  brought  up  a 
plan  for  uniting  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of  the 
different  cities  in  a  fraternity,  making  us  mutually  members 
of  each  other's  association.  This  proposal  caused  "very  much 
discussion,  but  was  finally  referred  to  a  select  committee  to  be 
appointed  for  that  purpose  and  to  revise  the  constitution." 

Pending  action  in  this  matter,  I  wrote  unofficially  to  the  sec- 
retary of  the  New  York  association,  proposing  that  that  society, 


Supplement 

as  the  larger  and  more  important,  should  take  the  lead  in  it, 
but  I  received  no  reply. 

At  a  meeting  of  our  association,  called  for  the  purpose,  on 
October  18,  1852,  the  above  committee  on  my  proposition  "in- 
volving community  of  interest  between  ourselves  and  other 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,"  made  a  report  which  was 
"  submitted  in  the  form  of  Section  5  to  Article  II,"  of  our  con- 
stitution. This  was  adopted  and  formally  incorporated  into 
our  organic  law,  to  the  effect  that  "the  members  of  all  other 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  while  transiently  among 
us,  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  this  association, 
eligibility  to  office  and  the  right  to  vote  only  excepted."  This 
action  was  formally  communicated  to  other  societies  as  they 
became  known  to  us ;  and  it  would  seem  that  a  provision,  more 
or  less  to  the  same  effect,  was  soon  afterwards  embodied  in  the 
constitutions  of  the  Brooklyn,  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  and  Lex- 
ington, Ky.,  societies. 

I  was  now  withdrawn  from  all  work  for  some  weeks  by  serious 
sickness.  I  next  find  a  memorandum  that  at  a  committee 
meeting  on  February  21,  I  suggested  informally  that  we  should 
request  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clement  M.  Butler,  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  then  about  to  visit  Europe,  to  represent  the  association 
at  the  anniversary  of  the  London  society  in  May,  and  also, 
that  we  should  try  to  get  a  meeting  of  delegates  from  the 
American  associations  in  New  York,  in  the  same  month.  The 
first  suggestion  was  shortly  afterwards  carried  out  and  Dr. 
Butler  was  commissioned  accordingly.     .     .     . 

At  the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  Washington  association,  in 
April,  I  presented  a  report  of  my  work  as  corresponding  secre- 
tary, giving  my  earliest  account  of  the  associations,  of  which 
so  far  as  then  known,  there  were  eleven. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  May,  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Shipton,  the  secretary  of  the  London  Association,  in  reply  to 
my  own  by  Dr.  Butler — and  accompanied  by  the  eighth  annual 
report  of  that  society  and  by  other  documents.  These,  and 
a  report  from  Dr.  Butler  himself  shortly  afterwards,  threw 
much   light  upon   the   subject  of  our  aims  and  methods,  and 


Supplement 

filled  me  at  once  with  new  ideas.  Among  these  was  a  project 
for  a  publication,  as  the  channel  for  the  interchange  of  infor- 
mation between  the  societies,  through  which  they  might 
severally  be  profited  by  each  other's  experience.  This  project 
furnished  me  with  a  new  point  of  departure.  The  scheme  of 
this  journal  was  deliberately  considered,  elaborately  wrought 
out,  reported  on  and  matured  so  far  as  the  Washington  society 
was  concerned.  In  this  document — my  original  draft  of  which 
now  lies  before  me — the  project  is  commended  to  the  associa- 
tions on  the  explicit  ground  that  it  would  "tend,  by  bringing 
each  isolated  society  into  one  vast  cooperating  system,  to  add 
to  the  strength  and  efficiency  of  every  branch  of  the  united 
work."  This  report  was,  in  July,  unanimously  adopted  by  our 
association,  but,  in  accordance  with  its  own  proposal,  action  on 
it  was  postponed  until  we  should  learn  to  what  extent  other 
societies  would  cooperate  with  us  in  sustaining  it. 

In  the  meantime,  therefore,  I  sought  opportunities  of  bring- 
ing both  the  scheme  of  this  journal  and  the  larger  subject  of  a 
convention  to  consider  the  whole  question  of  the  interrelations 
of  the  associations  before  some  of  these  in  person.  Within  a 
fortnight  I  was  able  to  secure  such  an  opportunity  in  Baltimore, 
in  New  York,  and  in  Boston.  In  Boston  and  Baltimore  noth- 
ing came  of  my  visits  or  of  my  arguments ;  the  subject  was 
dropped  without  action  of  any  kind.  In  New  York,  the  presi- 
dent, Professor  Howard  Crosby,  courteously  presented  me  to  a 
meeting  of  the  association,  where  I  had  the  fullest  opportunity 
of  submitting  my  plea,  after  which  he  presented  as  frankly  his 
objections  to  any  such  plans,  certainly  to  the  project  of  a  con- 
federation. These  objections  are  given  on  page  xvi.  The  as- 
sociation formally  declined  to  give  us  the  cooperation  we  asked, 
and  no  further  steps  were  taken  by  the  Washington  society  in 
respect  to  the  journal.  In  fact,  the  report  on  the  subject  was 
not  even  published. 

But,  at  the  quarterly  meeting  of  October  17,  1853,  I  tried  an- 
other line  of  approach.  This  meeting  seems  to  have  been  ex- 
ceptionally large,  divers  ministers  being  present  and  taking 
part.     On  this  occasion  I  read  an  unusually  full  report.     I  was 

iii 


Supplement 

now  in  correspondence  with  eighteen  of  twenty-six  American 
associations,  and,  indeed,  in  consequence  of  the  extent  of  this 
correspondence,  I  had  printed  a  circular  letter  containing  such 
matter  as  would  be  common  to  all  such  communications.  In 
this  report  I  gave  some  details  of  the  work  in  the  larger  and 
older  societies,  and  cited  some  lessons  taught  by  their  ex- 
perience. I  also  gave  some  account  of  the  working  of  our  in- 
stitution in  Great  Britain  and  on  the  European  Continent,  with 
some  attempt  to  analyze  the  characteristics  of  its  influence  in 
different  countries.  The  paper  closed  with  an  argument,  alike 
from  the  needs  of  the  American  societies  and  from  the  exam- 
ple of  those  in  Europe,  for  some  definite  relations — some  al- 
liance between  the  former. 

I  now  threw  myself  anew  into  my  correspondence,  with  a 
view  to  the  annual  meeting  of  January  16,  1854.  The  hall  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institute  was  crowded  at  that  meeting,  for 
Bishop  Alonzo  Potter,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  to  make  the  annual 
address.  I  laid  before  the  association  at  that  time,  a  greatly 
condensed  summary  of  my  annual  report,  which  was  printed 
in  the  National  Intelligeiicer.  The  report  itself  was  the 
fullest  and  most  detailed  which,  up  to  that  date,  had  been  any- 
where prepared  of  the  institution  in  all  parts  of  both  Europe 
and  America.  There  were  then  230  associations  in  all  known 
to  me.  As  subsequently  published  in  the  Washington  annual 
report  for  1853,  it  was  corrected  up  to  May  8,  1854,  and  supple- 
mented with  long  notes  and  quotations ;  and  it  now  remains,  1 
presume,  a  substantially  reliable  statement  of  what  the  asso- 
ciations were  at  that  early  date.  In  this  paper  I  discussed  anew 
the  questions  of  an  American  Confederation ;  and  encouraged 
by  the  reception  which  the  two  reports  met  as  well  out  of  as 
within  our  own  society,  I,  for  the  fourth  time,  approached  the 
associations  of  New  York  and  Boston,  in  the  hope  that,  although 
unwilling  either  to  act  alone,  they  might  consent — one  or  both 
of  them — to  act  with  the  Washington  society,  in  inviting  a 
convention.  This  proposal  also  the  New  York  society  declined, 
and  no  reply  was  for  some  time  received  from  Boston. 

About  the  same  time,  the  Washington  association  first  fur- 


Supplement 

nished  its  members  with  membership  tickets,  which  should  at- 
test their  character  as  such  to  any  other  societies  who  would 
honor  such  a  claim. 

I  now  addressed  myself  to  Buffalo  and  Cincinnati ;  and  had 
just  decided  to  ask  the  board  of  managers  for  authority  to  act 
alone,  when  I  received  a  reply  from  Buffalo,  cordially  authoriz- 
ing the  use  of  the  name  of  their  secretary,  and  also  inviting 
the  proposed  convention  to  be  held  in  that  city.  A  circular  was 
in  consequence  issued  at  once  under  the  signature  of  Mr.  Oscar 
Cobb  and  myself ;  and  it  had  scarcely  been  published,  when  I 
received  authority  from  the  Boston  society  to  make  a  like  use 
of  the  name  of  their  secretary,  Mr.  Jenks.  The  original  circu- 
lar was  issued  under  date  of  February  28,  1854,  and  was  ad- 
dressed to  thirty-two  associations  The  supplemental  circular, 
associating  the  Boston  society  in  this  proposal  with  those  of 
Buffalo  and  Washington,  bore  date  March  2.  Soon  after  this 
I  also  heard  from  both  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis,  in  cordial  con- 
currence with  this  proposal,  even  before  those  societies  could 
have  received  our  circular.  It  was  evident  that,  however  in- 
disposed the  larger  eastern  associations,  those  of  the  west  were 
entirely  in  accord  with  that  of  Washington  upon  this  sub- 
ject. 

I  now  began,  for  the  first  time,  clearly  to  understand,  there 
were  two  classes  of  difficulties  obstructing  the  scheme  of  a  con- 
vention and  a  confederation.  The  first  were  those  which  grew 
out  of  the  question  of  the  resultant  relations  of  the  associations 
themselves.  Some  of  the  larger  societies  feared  that  any  such 
relations  would  expose  them  to  the  control  of  a  majority  of  the 
smaller  associations,  which  would  seriously  interfere  with  their 
local  efficiency ;  or,  if  the  English  idea  were  adopted,  and  one 
association  was  recognized  as  metropolitan,  all  the  others  being 
regarded  as  branches  of  that  one,  that  the  association  at  Wash- 
ington would  claim  such  a  preeminence.  Many  of  the  smaller 
societies,  on  the  contrary,  had  the  fear  that,  under  such  a 
scheme,  they  would  be  reduced  to  the  position  of  branches,  or 
at  all  events  would  be  dominated  by  the  greater  societies, 
probably  by  that  in  New  York. 


Supplement 

There  were  also  difficulties  which  grew  directly  out  of  the 
state  of  the  slavery  question.  Some  of  the  northern  societies 
were  not  willing  to  enter  into  any  relations  with  those  of  the 
south,  at  least  not  without  making  their  protest  on  that  subject, 
and  others  preferred  to  discourage  any  such  relations  or,  cer- 
tainly, to  hold  aloof  themselves,  in  the  assurance  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  prevent  trouble  and  angry  disintegration 
from  that  cause.  Upon  this  latter  point,  Prof.  Crosby  laid 
emphasis,  and  this  was  the  ground  of  the  objections  felt  in 
Baltimore. 

The  whole  scheme  was,  at  least  in  its  outlines,  already 
too  clearly  defined  to  me  to  leave  me  any  anxiety  on  these 
grounds. 

As  for  the  slavery  question,  I  saw  no  reason  to  think  -that 
the  subject  need  give  to  the  associations  unitedly  any  more 
trouble  than  it  had  already  made  for  us  in  Washington,  where 
we  had  been  entirely  able  to  control  it. 

By  the  twelfth  of  April  I  had  received  twenty  replies  to  our 
circular ;  of  these,  sixteen  were  in  favor  of  holding  a  convention, 
while  the  other  four,  though  not  advising  it,  would,  if  it  should 
be  held,  probably  send  delegates.  The  majority  of  the  sixteen 
concurred  in  selecting  Buffalo  as  the  place  of  meeting.  On  that 
day,  therefore,  another  circular  was  issued,  announcing  these 
results,  and  inviting  the  assembly  of  delegates  from  the  asso- 
ciations, on  June  7,  "to  confer  relative  to  the  formation  of  an 
alliance ;  to  secure  such  uniformity  of  organization  and  action 
as  may  be  thought  desirable,  and  to  consider  such  other 
questions  as  may  arise  in  connection  therewith,"  at  Buffalo. 

The  Washington  association  at  once  elected  five  delegates, 
four  of  whom  met  to  consider  certain  propositions,  drawn  up 
by  me  as,  in  my  judgment,  obviating  all  the  difficulties  and  ob- 
jections which  had  been  urged  against  the  plan  of  a  confede- 
ration. Of  these  they  heartily  approved,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
they  should  be  printed  and  submitted  beforehand  to  the  several 
associations  which  would  probably  be  represented  at  the  con- 
vention, as  a  statement  of  the  proposal  which  would  there  be 
made  by  the   Washington   delegation.     This  was  done  in  a 

vi 


Supplement 

special  circular,  dated  April  16.  With  this  step  the  Washing- 
ton initiative  was  closed.     ...  * 

The  adjournment  of  the  Buffalo  convention  virtually  remitted 
into  the  hands  of  the  Central  Committee — and,  indeed,  largely 
into  my  own,  for  I  was  at  once  chosen  the  general  secretary  of 
that  Committee — the  task  of  securing  the  results  of  its  work 
and  of  organizing  the  proposed  Confederation.  In  this  I  was 
from  the  first  earnestly  sustained  by  Mr.  Neff,  of  Cincinnati, — 
to  whose  moral  support  as  well  as  to  whose  active  cooperation  I 
was  constantly  indebted. 

The  Cincinnati  society  was  the  first  to  ratify — on  June  12 — the 
Buffalo  resolutions.  One  week  later,  the  Washington  and  St. 
Louis  societies  unanimously  took  the  same  action. 

On  June  26,  the  Central  Committee  met,  organized  and  au- 
thorized the  issue  of  Circular  No.  1,  which  I  had  already  drafted, 
officially  announcing  to  all  the  associations  of  the  United  States 
and  British  Provinces,  the  results  of  the  Buffalo  convention, 
and  inviting  action  thereon. 

This  announcement  was  variously  received.  On  July  18,  I 
wrote  to  Mr.  Neff,  that  the  Pittsburgh,  Buffalo  and  Louisville 
associations  had  taken  favorable  action,  but  that  the  society  in 
Brooklyn  had  categorically  declined  to  do  so.  About  the  same 
time,  moreover,  the  Independent  came  out  in  distinct  and  for- 
mal condemnation  of  the  whole  scheme,  and  we  learned,  in- 
formally, that  this  utterance  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the 
feelings  which  prevailed  in  the  New  York  society.  Soon  after 
this,  moreover,  the  Boston  association  disallowed  the  course 
of  its  own  delegates  at  Buffalo,  and  refused  participation  in  the 
Confederation,  and  of  course  by  so  doing  vacated  the  place  of 
its  representative  on  the  Central  Committee. 

On  August  14,  the  New  York  board  of  managers  and  a  week 
afterwards  that  association  itself,  met  and  discussed  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Confederation,  but  without  taking  any  action.  A 
few  days  later,  Mr.  Neff  and  I,  meeting  in  New  York,  called 
together  upon  some  of  the  leading  members  of  that  society,  and 


*The  substance  of  Dr.  Langdon's  account  of  the  Buffalo  convention 
has  been  given  in  the  body  of  the  pamphlet  and  is  therefore  omitted  here. 


Supplement 

discussed  the  subject  with  them,  but  without  any  immediate 
result.  Referring  to  this  conversation,  Mr.  Neff  subsequently 
wrote  me:  (Oct.  10.)  " The  association  occupies  so  very  respon- 
sible a  position,  that  all  the  efforts  made  to  induce  a  ratification 
by  it,  would  seem  to  me  to  be  very  well  directed.  In  conver- 
sation with  Mr.  McCartee  (the  corresponding  secretary)  some 
weeks  since  in  New  York,  I  suggested  to  him  that,  if  the  asso- 
ciation would  not  ratify  the  plan  of  confederation  in  the  lan- 
guage adopted  by  the  Buffalo  convention — and  to  which  they 
are  inclined  to  object  as  clothing  the  Central  Committee  with 
too  much  power — that  they  should  draw  up  a  preamble  and 
resolutions  of  their  own,  which,  with  a  trifling  difference  of 
words,  might  bring  them  on  the  same  platform.  .  .  .  They 
object,  particularly,  to  the  name  of  the  Committee — 'Central.' 
Now.  if  you  and  the  other  members  of  the  Committee  at  Wash- 
ington can  remove  this  impression,  perhaps  our  object  can  be 
attained." 

By  the  latter  part  of  August  the  report  of  the  Buffalo  con- 
vention was  published,  thus  placing  in  the  hands  of  all  the  whole 
story  of  the  debate  on  the  confederation.  Early  in  September, 
the  Philadelphia  association,  itself  organized  since  the  Buffalo 
convention,  ratified  its  action  at  the  first  constitutional  meeting. 
On  October  4,  I  reported,  in  addition  to  those  already  named, 
the  ratification  of  the  societies  in  Toronto,  New  Orleans,  and 
Peoria,  111. ,  making  ten  in  all ;  but  although  to  these  were,  soon 
afterwards,  added  two  or  three  more  of  the  smaller  societies, 
it  was  now  evident  that  about  all  had  been  attained  that  was  to 
be  hoped  for,  as  matters  then  stood. 

A  private  letter  had  been  received  by  me,  some  two  months 
before,  from  Mr.  C.  R.  Brooke,  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
Toronto  association,  urging  upon  the  Central  Committee  some 
provision  equivalent  to  the  resolution  offered  at  Buffalo  by  the 
Toronto  delegate,  Mr.  Holland,  with  reference  to  the  relation 
of  Christian  slaves  to  the  associations  "  as  a  principle  which, 
in  our  opinion,  should  be  adopted  as  fundamental  by  any  con- 
federation of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations."  Indeed, 
Mr.    Brooke    said    that    the    Toronto    society    had    ratified 

viii 


Supplement 

the  Buffalo  scheme  only  by  a  small  majority,  and  ' '  in  the 
hope  that  when  the  Central  Committee  adopts  a  constitution, 
some  such  principle  will  be  proposed  to  the  associations  as  a 
test  of  their  connection  with  one  another." 

At  this  day  it  would  be  very  difficult  for  any  one  whose 
memory  does  not  antedate  the  war  of  1861-65  to  enter  under- 
standing^ into  the  views  and  feelings  inevitably  involved  on 
either  side  in  such  an  issue.  I  instinctively  felt  that  this  was, 
perhaps,  the  true  crisis  of  the  Confederation.  The  causes  which 
had  obstructed  the  calling  of  a  convention  even  to  consider  the 
mutual  relations  of  the  associations,  and  which  made  so  many 
of  them  averse  to  recognize  any  formal  relations  at  all,  now 
presented  themselves  from  different  directions  and  divested  of 
all  side  issues.  I  have  already  stated  those  causes.  The  Cana- 
dian and  probably  some  of  the  northern  associations  were  now 
unwilling  that  the  Confederation  should  place  them  in  what 
they  regarded  as  a  false  position  in  respect  to  the  religious  con- 
sequences of  slavery — for  instance,  Toronto  and  Providence. 
The  southern  associations,  on  the  other  hand,  were  equally 
sensitive  about  anything  which  would  reflect  on  the  Christian 
principle  with  which  they  conformed  to  the  social  and  political 
conditions  under  which  they  were  constituted  and  under  which 
alone,  of  course,  they  could  do  their  work.  Some  of  these, 
therefore,  were  unwilling  to  expose  themselves  to  having  those 
principles  called  in  question,  as  for  instance,  Baltimore  and 
Charleston,  and  indeed,  the  association  in  New  Orleans  also, 
whose  ratification  was  based  on  their  confidence  in  those  who 
had  selected  Mr.  Helme  to  preside  at  the  Buffalo  convention  and 
who  had  suppressed  the  Holland  resolution,  an  anti-slavery 
declaration  proposed  at  Buffalo.  Still  again,  the  New  York 
and  very  possibly  other  associations,  shrunk  from  the  Con- 
federation as  from  an  arena  in  which  it  would  be  impossible 
to  escape  from  harm  and  controversy  from  this  cause. 

To  decide  either  way,  therefore,  on  the  issue  involved  in  the 
Toronto  ratification  would  be  in  all  probability  to  shutout  some 
important  associations  on  the  one  side  or  on  the  other.  To  de- 
cide at  all  would,  irrespective  of  the  character  of  that  decision, 


Supplement 

be  an  act  equally  unacceptable  to  those  societies  which  were 
jealous  of  any  authority  which  should  trespass  upon  their  au- 
tonomy. And  yet  it  was  necessary  to  dispose  of  this  issue  in 
some  way  which  would  be  effectual  and  final. 

In  the  Washington  society  I  had  successfully  resisted  the 
attempts  of  some  of  our  southern  members  to  involve  that 
body  in  this  question  and  to  commit  it  on  one  side.  I  felt  little 
doubt  that  the  same  thing  could  be  done  again  for  the  Con- 
federation, now  that  the  danger  came  from  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. But  the  first  suggestions  of  a  way  out  of  the  dilemma 
were  made  by  Messrs.  Brooke  and  McCartee.  The  former  had 
proposed  that  we  should  publish  ' « a  circular  denning  our  posi- 
tion," of  course,  on  the  relation  of  our  associations  to  slaves. 
The  other,  writing  to  me  with  reference  simply  to  the  local 
jealousy  of  outside  interference,  expressed  the  belief  that  "a 
judicious  friendly  course  on  the  part  of  the  Committee  second- 
ing the  efforts  of  those  in  New  York  who  favor  the  Confedera- 
tion, might  disarm  those  who  seem  over-prudent  in  the 
matter." 

I  wrote,  therefore,  to  Mr.  McCartee,  asking  for  his  sugges- 
tions. He  promptly  responded  in  a  letter  which  is  not  now 
before  me,  but  to  which  I  replied  at  once  that  his  suggestions 
were  good.  A  meeting  of  the  local  members  of  the  Central 
Committee  was  held  on  November  9,  when  I  laid  before  them 
a  draft  of  a  circular  drawn  up  in  accordance,  doubtless,  with 
Mr.  McCartee's  suggestions  and,  at  the  same  time,  with  direct 
reference  to  the  issue  brought  before  us  by  the  Toronto  society 
and  by  Mr.  Brooke's  letter  which  Mr.  McCartee  did  not  have 
in  mind.  I  met  the  issue  simply  by  showing  that  the  Buffalo 
resolutions  did  not  provide  for  any  other  constitution  than  the 
general  principles  which  they  themselves  set  forth ;  and  that 
the  Central  Committee  was  not  a  governing  function  author- 
ized to  assume  any  control,  but  rather  a  creature  of  the  con- 
federated associations  for  certain  definite  and  limited  pur- 
poses. 

The  draft  being  unanimously  approved  at  this  meeting, 
was  printed,    and,   proof  copies  were  forwarded  to   Messrs. 


Supplement 

McCartee,  Helme  and  Neff,  and  by  them  instantly  and  equally 
approved.  Mr.  Neff  wrote :  "  Your  inferences  and  deductions 
are  admirable  and  exactly  express  the  ideas  expressed  and  the 
general  feeling  manifested  at  Buffalo,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to 
form  an  opinion." 

This  circular  was  issued  November  18,  1854.  At  a  meeting, 
held  on  November  20,  the  New  York  association  ratified  the 
proceedings  of  the  Buffalo  convention  and  identified  itself, 
thenceforth,  with  the  Confederation.  The  Concord  associa- 
tion did  the  same,  the  same  evening.  This  Circular  No.  2  and 
the  consequent  action  of  the  New  York  association  had  a  far- 
spread  influence ;  and  by  the  close  of  the  year,  twenty  of  the 
necessary  twenty-two  ratifications  had  been  received.  Still 
others  followed  in  January;  the  associations  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  and  San  Francisco,  both  acting  on  the  fifteenth  of  that 
month,  more  than  completing  the  required  number,  and  from 
that  date  bringing  the  Confederation  into  full  operation.  On 
the  twenty-seventh  the  important  society  in  Montreal,  the  first 
American  scion  of  the  London  association,  united  with  the 
rest.  On  February  20,  1855,  Circular  No.  3  was  issued,  an- 
nouncing the  complete  organization  of  the  Confederation  by 
the  action  of  twenty-five  societies,  which  did  not  include  San 
Francisco,  from  which  we  had  not  then  had  time  to  hear.     .     . 

That  it  had  been  my  privilege  to  take  a  leading  part  in 
bringing  this  about  is,  no  doubt,  true.  Mr.  Lowry  of  Cincin- 
nati, was  so  good  as  to  say,  in  1877,  that  "without  (my)  per- 
sistent efforts,  the  first  convention  would  not  have  been 
called;"  but  it  is  certainly  as  true,  but  that  for  Mr.  Neff  and 
his  colleagues  of  the  Cincinnati  delegation,  my  scheme  of  a 
Confederation  would  not  have  survived  that  convention.  As 
Mr.  McBurney  says :  ' '  To  overcome  such  prejudices  and  ob- 
jections (as  yet  remained)  was  no  easy  task;"  and  I  did  in- 
deed "conduct  the  negotiations;"  yet  the  ultimate  success  of 
those  negotiations  and  the  first  triumph  of  the  plan  matured 
at  Buffalo  were  largely  due  to  the  hearty  cooperation  of 
Messrs.  Neff  and  Helme,  and,  so  far  as  New  York  was  con- 
cerned, of  Mr.  McCartee. 


Supplement 

But  as  our  several  associations  were,  in  my  own  concep- 
tions from  the  first,  but  the  local  expressions  of  an  inchoate 
national  institution — so  even  this  was  to  me  but  a  part  of  a 
still  larger  scheme  of  international  proportions. 

The  first  suggestion  of  anything  of  the  kind,  of  which  I  find 
any  private  record,  was  in  connection  with  the  proposal  made 
in  February,  1853,  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Butler  should  be  re- 
quested to  represent  the  Washington  association  at  the  annual 
breakfast  of  the  London  society — a  suggestion  which  grew  in 
definiteness  on  the  reception  of  Mr.  Shipton's  first  letter  in 
May  and  the  circulars  from  Geneva  in  August  of  the  same 
year. 

To  this  thought  1  gave  the  first  public  expression  in  my  first 
annual  report  to  the  Washington  association,  or  rather  in  the 
brief  summary  of  that  report  actually  read  at  the  meeting  of 
January  23,  1854.  I  there  sketched  in  slight  outline  a  scheme 
of  international  correspondence,  in  which  there  should  be  a 
center  of  information  for  every  national  group  of  associations, 
each  center  being  in  direct  correspondence  with  all  others, 
furnishing  them  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  digested  and  com- 
pacted information  from  its  own  field;  and  distributing,  in 
turn,  to  the  associations  of  its  own  national  group  the  in- 
formation it  received.  I  have  a  clear  impression  that  I  had 
already  suggested  something  of  this  kind — and,  I  think,  a 
general  conference  as  well — in  my  correspondence  with  Lon- 
don, Geneva  and  Germany ;  indeed,  the  language  of  this  re- 
port, and  subsequent  reference  in  my  letters  from  abroad, 
distinctly  imply  as  much ;  but  of  this  I  cannot  now  be  positive. 
So  long,  however,  as  it  was  quite  uncertain  whether  the 
American  associations  would  be  disposed  to  adopt  any  such 
system  of  inter-relations  among  themselves,  so  long  it  would 
certainly  be  premature  to  propose  to  them  anything  like  inter- 
national relations. 

Among  those  members  of  the  New  York  association  who 
more  nearly  shared  my  views  on  this  subject,  was  Mr.  Richard 
C.  McCormick,  Jr.,  one  of  the  vice  presidents  of  that  body. 
In  April,  1854,  a  few  days  after  the  issue  of  the  call  for  the 

xii 


Supplement 

Buffalo  convention,  being  about  to  visit  Europe,  this  gentle- 
man called  on  me  in  Washington,  as  well  for  information 
about  the  foreign  associations  as  also  for  letters  of  introduc- 
tion, both  of  which  I  was  glad  to  give  him,  and  I  took  advan- 
tage of  the  opportunity  to  talk  with  him  very  fully  of  my  ideas 
concerning  the  relations  which  might  exist  between  them  and 
us.  Mr.  McCormick  made  an  extensive  tour,  visiting  the 
associations  in  all  parts  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  France,  Ger- 
many and  Switzerland.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  first  representa- 
tive of  our  associations  among  those  of  the  European 
continent.  During  this  tour  he  was  so  good  as  to  charge  him- 
self for  me  with  packages  of  reports  and  documents  to  a  num- 
ber of  these  associations.  He  was  everywhere  called  to  give 
information,  both  privately  and  publicly,  regarding  the 
American  societies ;  he  wrote  to  me  frequently  and  at  length 
of  his  own  observations,  at  the  same  time  collecting  for  me 
documents  of  every  kind,  and  prompting  the  foreign  brethren 
to  write  to  me. 

In  October  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  a  member  of  the 
London  association,  with  whom  I  find  it  noted  in  my  diary 
that  "  I  had  a  long,  long  talk  about  international  intercourse." 

During  this  winter  I  received  three  long  letters  from  M. 
Henri  Dunant,  secretary  of  the  Geneva  association,  welcoming 
my  suggestions  most  cordially.  "We  think,"  wrote  he,  "that 
your  idea  of  establishing  a  regular  correspondence  between 
certain  points,  as  centers  for  our  associations,  is  excellent,"  and 
he  suggested  what  were  the  appropriate  centers  for  such  a  cor- 
respondence in  the  European  organizations. 

In  January,  1855,1  wrote  to  Mr.  Neff,  ' '  Our  system  of  foreign 
correspondence  is  completed,  so  far  as  the  European  continent 
goes.  I  have  heard  from  Amsterdam,  Ronsdorf ,  Paris,  Geneva, 
and  Lausanne  directly;  and  indirectly  from  Sweden,  Italy  and 
Algiers." 

My  Paris  letter,  received  in  November,  was  from  M.  le  Pas- 
teur Cook,  the  president  of  the  association  in  that  city,  and  it 
was  principally  in  reference  to  a  general  or  ecumenical  con- 
ference of  all  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  which  the 


Supplement 

London  Committee  had  proposed,  to  be  held  in  Paris,  in  the 
summer  following.  For  this  conference  our  Central  Committee 
was  asked  to  prepare  a  report  on  the  American  associations ; 
in  fact,  the  whole  plan,  so  far  as  these  were  concerned,  was  put 
into  our  hands. 

The  Washington  members  urged  on  Mr.  Neff  the  preparation 
of  this  report.  He,  in  response,  insisted  that  I  should  write 
it ;  and  this  matter  rested  undetermined,  up  to  the  time  of  our 
Circular  No.  3 — Feb.  20,  1855 — announcing  the  complete  organi- 
zation of  the  Confederation. 

From  this  date,  however,  I  resolved  to  withdraw  from  further 
official  work.  My  motives  in  all  that  I  had  so  far  done  and 
tried  to  do,  had  been  severely  characterized  in  certain  societies 
—  especially  in  those  of  New  York  and  New  Orleans.  How- 
ever decided  in  his  dissent  from  my  policy,  Prof.  Crosby  had, 
of  course,  ever  given  expression  to  that  dissent  with  entire 
Christian  courtesy.  But,  by  others,  it  had  been  publicly 
charged,  at  the  very  meeting  at  which  the  New  York  society 
had  ratified  the  Buffalo  resolutions  and  since,  that  there  was 
little  real  object  in  my  scheme  but  my  own  personal  aim  to 
open  an  arena  for  my  own  ambition ;  and  this  judgment, 
accepted  by  some  southerners  then  present,  was  afterwards 
brought  up  against  the  plan  and  against  me  in  New  Orleans. 
To  Mr.  Helme,  in  the  same  envelope  with  the  above  Circular 
No.  3,  I  therefore  wrote:  " I  have  thought  my  continuance  in 
my  position  as  general  secretary  was,  perhaps,  positively  detri- 
mental to  our  dear  cause ;  and  that  the  removal  of  the  Central 
Committee  from  Washington,  and  that  the  appointment  of 
some  one  else  as  general  secretary  would  free  the  Confedera- 
tion from  many  most  disagreeable  and  serious  drawbacks  upon 
its  unanimity  and  strength.  Indeed,  I  desire  to  serve  the  cause 
I  have  taken  in  hand;  indeed,  my  dear  brother,  this  is  my 
only  wish.  If  it  is  well,  I  will  labor  while  I  can  stand  the 
weight ;  if  it  is  best,  let  me  withdraw  from  the  active  labor ; 
still  praying  for  it;  most  deeply  regretting  I  have  done  so 
little;  but  with  all  the  heart  to  have  done  much  more." 

At  the  distance  of  thirty-three  years,  this  seems  a  very  trifling 


Supplement 

incident.  But  it  may  help  some  one  who  has  not  yet  learned,  as 
I  had  not  then,  that  such  harsh  misjudgments  and  personal  at- 
tacks are  the  almost  inevitable  cost  of  a  sincerely  earnest  attempt 
to  accomplish  any  public  result,  however  good  it  may  be  in  it- 
self, if  it  be  at  the  time  unpopular  or  unappreciated  by  those 
who  oppose  it. 

My  wish  and  purpose  to  retire  from  the  Central  Committee 
were  indeed  earnestly  resisted.  The  Cincinnati  association 
elected  me  an  honorary  member,  as  a  mark  of  confidence.  I 
have  now  before  me  the  affectionate  letters  of  Messrs.  Neff, 
Helme  and  Lowry  combating  my  intention.  "I  could  not  but 
consider  it,"  wrote  the  latter  "fatal  to  the  union  of  our  asso- 
ciations. No  one  has  so  clear  an  idea  of  the  object  to  be  gained 
by  such  a  union,  and  no  one  connected  with  it  is  so  well  quali- 
fied to  bring  it  into  effective  operation  as  yourself." 

Almost  concurrently  with  this,  had  also  come  a  second  letter 
from  Pastor  Cook,  of  Paris,  in  reference  to  the  proposed  gen- 
eral conference,  in  preparation  for  which,  so  far  as  the  Ameri- 
can associations  were  concerned,  the  dependence  had  been 
placed  on  me.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  Neff  visited  me;  and 
while  I  was  still  convinced  that  the  best  interests  of  the  asso- 
ciations could  now  be  more  effectually  promoted  by  other  hands, 
yet  I  consented  to  write  the  report  for  the  Paris  conference  and 
to  retain  the  general  secretaryship  until  the  next  convention, 
on  the  understanding  that  the  Central  Committee  should  then 
be  removed  from  Washington,  and  I  be  permitted  to  retire  from 
official  position  and  duty. 

Indeed,  in  deference  to  the  New  York  association,  it  was 
proposed  among  ourselves  that  our  next  convention  should  be 
held  and  the  Central  Committee  be  located  in  that  city.  I, 
therefore,  in  March,  wrote  informally  to  Prof.  Crosby,  to  learn 
if  this  would  be  acceptable  to  them.  My  letter  was,  it  seems, 
laid  before  the  society  itself,  and  Prof.  Crosby  replied  officially 
that  the  New  York  association  had  "unanimously  decided,  in 
full  meeting,  that  we  deem  any  convention  inexpedient  and  de- 
cline any  connection  with  such. "  Prof.  Crosby  added:  "We 
gave  in  our  adhesion  to  the  Central  Committee,  merely  as  to  a 


Supplement 

committee  of  correspondence,  to  cement  the  associations  by 
that  proper  means." 

The  reasons  for  their  position,  in  which  there  were  unques- 
tionably much  truth  and  force,  were  thus  stated  in  this  con- 
nection : 

"i.  We  believe  conventions  draw  off  attention  from  local 
work,  and  our  institution  is  emphatically  local. 

"  2.  We  believe  they  foster  a  centralizing  spirit  at  war  with 
independent  action. 

"3.  We  believe  they  will  tend  to  produce  unpleasant  scenes 
and  ruptures  on  such  subjects  as  slavery. 

1 '  4.    We  believe  the  expense  unauthorized  by  our  main  object. 

"5.  We  believe  fraternal  feelings  between  the  associations 
may  be  better  cultivated  by  correspondence  and  chance 
visits."    .     .     . 

The  following  language  was  used  in  Circular  No.  5,  of  July 
10,  1855,  by  which  the  next  convention  was  announced. 

"  It  appears  scarcely  possible  to  make  it 'plainer  than  it  is, 
that  the  confederated  existence  is  intended,  in  no  way,  at  no 
time,  under  no  circumstances,  and  in  no  relation,  whether  as  a 
convention  or  as  a  Central  Committee,  to  advance  upon  the 
local  character  of  any  association."  ....  "Upon  this 
limitation  of  their  functions  [the  Central  Committee  has]  had 
occasion  more  than  once  to  insist.  [Its  members,]  as  a  Com- 
mittee, have  no  authority  to  issue  decrees,  to  assume  positions, 
or  to  express  opinions  on  any  abstract  questions." 

As  the  day  of  the  convention  drew  near  it  was  well  under- 
stood that  the  Washington  association  would  insist  on  the  re- 
moval of  the  Central  Committee  to  some  other  city,  and  that  I 
would  wholly  withdraw  from  the  active  charge  of  any  work 
for  the  Confederation.  Not  my  immediate  coworkers  alone, 
but  others  prominent  in  the  associations,  still  deprecated  in  the 
warmest  language  this  decision.  Mr.  McCormick  of  New  York, 
for  instance,  was  so  kind  as  to  write  in  such  terms  as  these : 
"Your  great  intimacy  with  the  associations  of  this  country, 
your  wide  correspondence  with  those  of  other  lands,  and  your 
industrious  and  warm  Christian  spirit,  combine  to  make  you 


Supplement 

eminently  fit  for  the  important  position  which  you  have  held  in 
connection  with  the  Confederation  from  the  day  of  its  organi- 
zation, and  which,  I  sincerely  trust,  that  you  will  by  no  means 
abandon." 

There  are,  however,  some  instances  in  which  he  who  lays 
foundations  cannot  continue  to  build ;  in  which  the  personal  an- 
tagonism— whether  deserved  or  undeserved — which  is  aroused 
in  the  earlier  work  cannot  but  render  it  unwise  for  him  to  go 
on.  This  was  precisely  such  an  instance ;  and  however  grati- 
fying to  me  such  kind  words  as  those  I  have  just  quoted,  they 
did  not  alter  my  own  judgment  that  I  had  now  done  all  that, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  had  been  given  me  to  do  in  this 
matter. 

The  convention  met  in  Cincinnati  on  Wednesday,  September 
19,  1855.  It  was  not  much  larger  than  the  Buffalo  convention, 
little  over  fifty  members  being  in  attendance.  There  were,  by 
this  time,  in  all,  sixty  associations  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  of  which  thirty-six  had  united  in  the  Confederation. 
Seventeen  associations  had  taken  as  yet  no  action  on  the  sub- 
ject, while  seven  had  formally  declined  to  do  this,  of  which  how- 
ever, one  at  least — that  of  Brooklyn — afterwards  united.  Of 
the  thirty-six  confederated  associations,  but  twenty-two  were 
represented ;  the  convention  being,  indeed,  very  largely  a  west- 
ern gathering.  There  was  no  one  present  from  New  England ; 
no  one  from  either  New  York  or  Philadelphia.  Capt.  Noble 
of  Kingston  alone  represented  the  Canadian  brethren.  The 
fact  was  clearly  illustrated  that  the  opposition  to  the  Confede- 
ration was  almost  wholly  eastern;  in  fact,  the  Washington, 
Buffalo  and  Cincinnati  associations  alone  were  represented  at 
every  convention  from  the  first. 

The  Central  Committee  submitted  to  this  body  a  formal  re- 
port of  their  official  course,  accompanied  and  illustrated  both 
by  the  report  made  to  the  Paris  conference  and  by  the  five  of- 
ficial circulars  which  had  been  issued  by  them,  and  in  which 
the  principles  of  the  Confederation,  as  understood  by  the  Com- 
mittee, had  been  wrought  into  precise  statements  and  formally 
set  forth  as  a  polity.     These  documents,  therefore,  taken  to- 


Supplement 

gether,  constituted  an  official  exposition  of  the  principles  of  the 
Confederation ;  and  in  their  acceptance  by  the  Cincinnati  con- 
vention that  work  was  done,  and  those  principles  recognized 
as  constitutional. 

Nor  was  even  this  all.  Mr.  Shipton,  of  London,  wrote  me, 
under  date  of  September  7:  "I  hope  you  are  at  Cincinnati,  and 
that  you  have  there  learned  that  your  long  unanswered  (but 
not  neglected)  letter  to  me  had  produced  its  result  in  the  Paris 
conference,  and  that  your  plan  of  correspondence  was  likely 
to  be  carried  out."  During  the  convention  there  arrived,  also, 
an  official  letter  from  Pastor  Cook,  of  Paris,  giving  an  account 
of  the  ecumenical  conference  held  in  that  city,  August  19-24 ; 
of  the  reception  of  our  report,  and  of  the  system  of  interna- 
tional correspondence  brought  before  that  body,  as  mine,  by 
Pastor  Cuenod,  of  Lausanne,  then  and  there  adopted,  and  pro- 
posed to  the  different  national  groups  of  associations. 

It  was,  undoubtedly,  as  a  kind  and  brotherly  acceptance  of 
this  work  and  of  these  results,  but  it  was  due  also  to  the  per- 
sonal strictures  to  which  I  had  been  subjected,  that  I  was 
chosen  to  preside  over  this  convention.  It  was  the  warm  and 
even  the  indignant  ratification  of  my  official  course  and  an  ex- 
pression of  personal  regard  and  confidence.  As  such  I  deeply 
appreciated  it  then.  As  such,  I  gratefully  recall  now  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  I  retired  from  the  labor  of  over  three 
years,  whose  earlier  results  I  was,  even  then,  permitted  to  see 
and  of  whose  general  acceptance  by  the  whole  body  of  the  Amer- 
ican associations  I  was  afterwards  permitted  to  know.     .     .     . 

The  Cincinnati  convention  adopted,  together  with  action  on 
other  important  matters,  the  system  of  international  correspon- 
dence originally  suggested  by  me  and  set  forth  by  the  Paris 
conference,  and  Mr.  Rhees,  as  foreign  secretary,  furnished  the 
Quarterly  Reporter  with  information  from  abroad,  as  far  as 
in  his  power.  But  it  was  soon  found  that  the  details  of  the  plans 
had  not  been  sufficiently  matured,  so  far,  at  least,  as  we  were 
concerned,  and  they  remained  to  be  afterwards  perfected.     .     . 

I  went  to  Europe  in  January,  1857,  and  returned  in  the  June 


Supplement 

following.  There  is  the  less  occasion  for  dwelling  now  on  the 
opportunities  which  I  enjoyed  of  visiting  the  foreign  associa- 
tions— of  conferring  with  the  leaders  of  the  movement  in  Great 
Britain  and  on  the  continent,  or  of  profiting  by  the  lessons 
taught  us  by  this  study — since  all  this  was  done  pretty  fully  at 
the  time  and  left  on  record. 

The  range  of  the  institution  itself,  at  this  epoch,  may  be 
gathered  from  a  very  complete  list  published  in  the  Quarterly 
Reporter,  for  July,  1856,  p.  22.  In  this  same  journal  for  April, 
1857,  p.  44,  will  be  found  a  letter  of  mine  from  Paris;  and  in 
that  for  July  of  the  same  year,  p.  52,  a  fairly  complete  report  of 
my  whole  foreign  experience,  with  a  summary  of  the  more  im- 
portant considerations  suggested  to  me  thereby.  Moreover,  in 
the  Reporter,  for  October,  1857,  p.  60,  I  dwelt  upon  the  greater 
spirituality  of  the  foreign  associations  as  compared  with  our 
own;  in  that  for  January,  1858,  p.  8,  on  what  was,  at  the  time, 
the  very  serious  topic  of  "  the  uncertain  and  short  tenure  of 
office"  with  us ;  and  in  that  for  April,  1858,  p.  47,  on  the  greater 
organic  simplicity  and  homogeneity  of  the  foreign  societies. 
In  few  respects  have  the  associations  of  later  days  so  greatly 
improved  upon  their  earlier  traditions  as  in  rejecting  the  false 
principle  of  "  rotation  in  office"  on  which  many  of  us,  at  first, 
laid  much  stress. 

Referring  to  these  pages  it  will  suffice  to  say,  here,  that  in 
London,  I  attended  a  meeting  of  the  association  committee,  the 
Sunday  afternoon  Bible  class  and  a  devotional  meeting;  and  I 
also  represented  our  associations  at  the  annual  breakfast  of 
that  society  in  May.  In  France,  I  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
"Conseil"  of  the  National  "Union,"  and  saw  much  of  the  local 
members  in  Paris,  as  well  as  in  Nismes ;  and  I  attended  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Marseilles  Union.  In  Prussia  and  Germany,  I  was 
present  at  a  large  meeting  in  Berlin ;  spent  an  evening  with 
the  president,  Pastor  Hofmeyer ;  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  so- 
cieties of  Leipzig  and  Frankfort ;  learned  something  of  that  in 
Heidelberg  from  the  Chevelier  Bunsen,  and  passed  an  evening 
and  night  with  Pastor  Durselen,  the  president  of  the  Rhenish 
Union  at  Ronsdorf,  in  company  with  several  others  who  came 


Supplement 

to  meet  me.  In  Amsterdam,  I  attended  meetings  both  of  the 
main  society  and  of  a  branch  among  working  men,  in  company 
with  Messrs.  Bniyn  and  Heyblom.  In  Geneva,  I  was  most 
warmly  received ;  an  excursion  was  made  for  me  to  the  Mt. 
Saleve,  where  I  addressed  a  meeting  of  some  forty  members, 
going  on  from  thence  to  Lausanne,  to  do  the  same,  with  Messrs. 
Dunant,  Cuenod  and  Renevier.  With  all  of  these  I  arranged, 
on  behalf  of  our  Central  Committee,  the  details  of  a  working 
system  of  international  correspondence. 

Returning  from  the  continent,  I  accepted  a  programme  which 
had  been  kindly  prepared  for  me  by  Mr.  Shipton,  the  London 
secretary,  and  by  which  I  was  enabled  to  see,  in  a  fortnight, 
much  more  of  the  associations  of  Great  Britain  than  would 
have  otherwise  been  possible.  Beginning  with  Oxford,  I  vis- 
ited Warwick  and  Leamington  on  my  way  north ;  I  addressed 
a  meeting  of  the  association  and  attended  a  breakfast  with 
which  I  was  honored  in  Edinburgh ;  whence  I  went  to  Glasgow 
and  Belfast.  From  this  point  I  attended  and  addressed  a 
meeting  of  a  society,  called  to  welcome  me,  on  every  evening 
until  I  sailed,  in  Belfast,  in  Dublin,  in  Chester,  in  Manchester 
and  in  Liverpool.  At  every  one  of  these — but  perhaps,  es- 
pecially, in  Edinburgh,  in  Chester  and  in  Liverpool — was  the 
greatest  interest  shown  in  the  story  and  in  the  details  of  the 
working  of  our  general  organization,  and  the  purpose  expressed 
to  aim  at  some  similar  plan  for  their  own  associations. 

But,  possibly,  the  most  resultful  incident  of  this  whole  tour 
was  one  on  which  I  laid,  at  the  time,  no  special  stress. 

When  in  Berlin,  in  April,  the  American  Minister,  Governor 
Vroom  of  New  Jersey,  invited  a  few  gentlemen  to  meet  me  at 
dinner.  Among  these  was  Mr.  Peter  Bayne  of  Edinburgh, 
the  successor  of  Hugh  Miller  in  the  editorship  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Witness,  and  since  that  time  the  eminent  essayist.  I 
sat  near  him  at  table,  and  both  then  and  afterwards  had,  to 
quote  my  diary,  "some  talk  on  Christian  Association  affairs," 
and  afterwards,  at  his  request,  I  accompanied  him  to  his  rooms, 
and  '  *  continued  the  conversation  till  twelve. "  He  was  specially 
desirous  of  informing  himself  concerning  the  characteristics  and 


Supplement 

working  of  the  American  associations,  and  ' '  questioned  me 
closely  about  our  plan  of  Confederation."  Not  long  after  this 
there  appeared  in  the  Witness  an  admirable  editorial  from  the 
pen  of  Mr.  Bayne  on  the  subject  of  these  associations,  speak- 
ing of  them  as  aiming  to  ' «  establish  a  Christian  freemasonry 
over  Great  Britain,  America  and  the  Continent,"  and  frankly 
giving  the  preference  to  the  American  polity,  which  he 
thought,  "might,  with  necessary  modifications,  be  extended 
to  Europe."  This  article  attracted  much  notice  and  was 
widely  copied.  (It  can  be  found  in  the  Quarterly  Reporter 
for  July,  1858,  p.  77,  and  in  large  part,  also  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Reporter  for  May,  1880.)  It  was  largely  in  consequence  of 
this  article,  though  in  part,  doubtless,  of  my  own  visits  just 
referred  to,  that  steps  were  taken  looking  to  some  general  or- 
ganization of  the  associations  of  Great  Britain,  of  which  Mr. 
Leyland  thus  wrote  me :  ' '  Ever  since  you  were  here,  Brother 
Shrubsole  [of  Chester],  Giles  [of  Edinburgh],  and  I,  have  been 
determined,  with  the  Lord's  help,  to  agitate,  agitate,  agitate 
the  conference  question.  When  Giles  was  here,  I  took  him 
up  to  Chester,  and  we  had  a  meeting  of  the  three  of  us,  and 
prepared  the  outline  of  a  circular  to  send  to  the  branches. 
.  .  .  While  these  preliminaries  were  being  gone  through 
I  received  a  circular  on  the  same  subject,  from  the  Leeds 
branch,  inviting  a  conference  there  this  autumn.  .  .  The 
sequel  is  that  the  conference  is  to  be  held  towards  the  end  of 
September." 

The  first  conference  of  the  British  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations  was  held  accordingly  at  Leeds,  September  26-28, 
1858.  To  this,  at  the  request  of  the  promoters,  I  sent,  on  be- 
half of  our  own  Central  Committee,  general  information  of 
the  value  of  the  Confederation  to  us  and  suggestions,  which, 
together  with  the  reply  of  the  Leeds  committee,  was  pub- 
lished with  the  journal  of  the  Troy  convention,  pp.  145-148. 
The  character,  the  proceedings,  and  the  results  of  this  Leeds 
conference  were  reported  and  discussed  by  me  in  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Jour 7ial  for  May  and  June,  1859,  pp.  107  and 
134.     Without  going  further  into  detail,  suffice  it  here  to  add 


Supplement 

that  the  ultimate  result  was  a  general  union  of  the  British 
associations  about  those  of  London,  Edinburgh  and  Dublin 
upon  principles  analogous  to  those  of  the  American  Confedera- 
tion. This  union  was  definitely  perfected  at  a  conference  held 
in  London  July  10-13,  l859>  at  which  Mr.  Neff  of  Cincinnati 
was  the  American  representative. 

It  was,  says  Mr.  Lowry,  during  "  a  season  of  comparative 
inaction  that  the  Richmond  convention  [of  1857]  was  held." 
The  machinery  of  the  Confederation  had  reached  its  "dead 
center."  Those  who  had  been  drawn  into  the  associations  by 
the  interest  of  novelty  were  now  cooling  off,  and  some  associa- 
tions whose  life  was  unreal  ceased  to  exist.  The  work  of  this 
convention — which  scarcely  represented  more  societies  than 
that  of  Buffalo  and  was  numerically  the  weakest  since  that 
time — was  therefore  one  of  moral  recovery  and  restoration. 
It  was  characterized  by  steady  purpose ;  it  revised  and  greatly 
improved  the  methods  of  the  convention  itself;  it  rearoused 
flagging  interest  and  brought  the  institution  down  to  calm  and 
sober  work ;  so  that  by  the  time  of  the  Charleston  convention 
(1858),  the  organization  of  the  Confederation,  in  all  its  parts 
and  functions,  had  been  about  perfected.  The  only  serious 
question  which  then  remained  undetermined  was  that  of  the 
exact  sphere  and  purpose  of  those  associations. 

"The  association  men  themselves,"  says  Mr.  McBurney, 
"with  few  exceptions,  did  not  (during  this  period)  have  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations." 

The  Cincinnati  convention  had  provisionally  accepted  the 
Paris  Basis,  which  declared  that  these  associations  sought  to 
unite  those  young  men,  who  desire  to  be  the  disciples  of  Christ, 
"in  their  doctrine  and  in  their  life,  and  to  associate  their  efforts 
for  the  extension  of  His  kingdom  among  young  men."  The 
Montreal  convention  had  formally  declared  this  declaration 
" engrafted  upon  our  basis  of  Confederation."  But  the  asso- 
ciations had  not,  as  yet,  any  settled  American  traditions,  and 
it  is  difficult  now  to  realize  how  little  effective  meaning  this 


Supplement 

language  had  to  most  of  us,  or  how  thoroughly  at  sea  were  the 
large  proportion  of  our  more  active  young  men.  Not  only 
were  the  very  conventions  inconsistent  with  themselves  in  this 
matter,  but  this  was  quite  as  true  of  many  of  those  who  pressed 
the  adoption  of  the  most  restrictive  resolutions — no  less  true 
of  me  than  of  others. 

[These  closing  sentences  well  describe  the  limitations  of 
association  work  in  that  early  period — limitations  which  dis- 
appeared with  the  steady  growth  of  qualification  among  the 
various  classes  of  employed  officers  and  with  a  corresponding 
growth  of  adequate  equipment  in  the  form  of  buildings  and 
other  appliances.     R.  C.  M.] 


xxin 


INDEX 


American  correspondence  with  Europe,  ii,  xii,  xiii,  xv,  xviii- 

xxii. 
American  promotion  of  first  British  conference,  xxi. 
American  visitation  in  Europe,  32-35,  63,  ii,  xii,  xix. 
Army  and  navy  work,  35-39,  68. 

Bible  study  promoted  by  international  conventions,  90. 

Bowne,  J.  T.,  31,  62. 

Brainerd,  Cephas,  30,  43,  84. 

Branches,  relation  to  international  convention,  73. 

Buildings,  48,  49,  62,  85. 

Centralization,  99-102. 
Confederation  of  associations : 

Associations  constituting  it,  15. 

Ended  with  Chicago  convention,  1863,  39. 

Formed  by  Buffalo  convention,  1854,  10-15,  vii-xi. 

Langdon's  story  of,  31,  i-xxiii. 
Conferences  multiplied,  105. 
County  work,  72,  73. 

Day  of  prayer  for  young  men,  42. 
Dodge,  William  E.,  47. 

Evangelical  test,  46. 

Expenditure  and  finances:      international  and    state,    88-90, 
94-96,  104;  local,  66,  70,  97,  101. 

Federation  agencies:     advisory  relation,  99-102;  relationships, 

53.  75-79;  objective,  96-98;  value,  103-108. 
Federation,  Christian,  meaning  and  mission,  5. 
Federation   of  associations,  6,  i-xi;    periods:    first,  22,  23-39; 

second,  22,  40-64;  third,  22,  65-81. 
Fermaud,  Charles,  63. 
Foreign  work,  64,  80,  95. 


Index 

General  secretary: 
Early  leaders,  48. 
Title  first  used,  15,  adopted,  16. 
Training  and  securing,  55,  59-62,  66,  67,  83. 
Transiency,  104. 
Secretaries'  conferences,  54. 

Hall,  George  A.,  37,  48,  53. 
Hicks,  Clarence  J.,  67,  92. 

International  committee  and  its  work : 
Advisory  relation,  99-102. 
Agent,  first,  Robert  Weidensall,  44,  73. 
Agent,  second,  R.  C.  Morse ;  later  general  secretary,  46. 
Appointed  at  Buffalo  convention,  1854,  under  title  of  central 

committee,  13,  15. 
Associate  general  secretaries,  92. 
Chairman  Cephas  Brain erd,  43. 
Continued  in  New  York,  46. 
Endowment  fund,  95. 
Expenditure,  growth  of,  88-90,  94-96,  104. 
Incorporation  and  trustees,  65. 

Located  in  New  York  by  Albany  convention,  1866,  42. 
Location  changed  seven  times,  1854-1865,  32. 
Membership,  42,  56,  65,  66. 
Objective,  96-98. 
Organization,  diagram  of,  93. 
Relation  to  state  and  provincial  work,  75-79;  to  associations, 

96-102. 
Secretaries,  44,  46,  55-57,  62,  66,  67,  69,  91. 
Southern  visitation,  54. 
Subcommittees,  92,  93. 
Value,  103-105. 
Various  classes,  work  among,  56,  57,  67,  87. 

International  conventions : 
1854,  Buffalo,  7-16. 

Associations  represented,  9. 


Index 

Central  committee  appointed,  13,  15. 
Confederation  formed,  10-15. 
Delegates  surviving  in  1904,  9. 
Langdon's  promotion  of,  7,  i-vi. 
Objections  to,  8,  v,  vi. 
Value  and  spirit,  12,  13. 

1855,  Cincinnati,  24,  25,  xvii,  xxii. 

1856,  Montreal,  25,  26. 

1857,  Richmond,  26,  xxii. 

1858,  Charleston,  27,  xxii. 

1859,  Troy,  27-30,  83, 

True  object  of  association  discussed,  28-30. 

1863,  Chicago,  38. 

1864,  Boston,  39,  83. 
1866,  Albany,  40-42. 

Concentration  on  work  for  young  men,  41. 

Convention  committee  localized  in  New  York  for  three 
years,  41. 

Day  of  prayer  for  young  men  recommended,  42. 

Quarterly  magazine  established,  42. 

State  and  provincial  conventions  recommended,  41. 
1869,  Portland,  46,  47. 

Evangelical  test  adopted,  46. 

President,  William  E.  Dodge,  47. 
1873,  Poughkeepsie,  50-52. 

Two  phases  of  state  work  discussed,  50-52. 
1877,  Louisville,  56,  57. 

Conventions  made  biennial,  56. 

Student  work  international  secretary  authorized,  57. 
1879,  Baltimore,  56,  59,  60. 

"International  committee"  formally  adopted  as  title, 
56. 

President,  D.  L.  Moody ;  his  final  views  about  associa- 
tion work,  59,  60. 
1883,  Milwaukee,  65. 

Incorporation    of    international  committee  approved, 
65. 


Index 

1885,  Atlanta,  and  1889,  Philadelphia,  73. 

Branches  granted  representation,  73. 
1 891,  Kansas  City,  74. 

Resolution  passed  on  local  association  unity,  74. 
1899,  Grand  Rapids,  75,  76. 

Resolutions  passed  on  relationships,  75,  76. 

Committee  of  seven  on  relationships  appointed,  76. 
1901,  Boston,  76,  107. 

Committee  on  relationships  enlarged  to  twenty-one,  76. 

Men's  evangelistic  meeting,  107. 
1904,  Buffalo,  76-79. 

Report  of  committee  of  twenty-one  adopted,  76-79. 
Bible  study  promoted,  90. 
Influence  and  benefits,  32,  105-10S. 
State  work  promoted,  41,  91. 

Langdon,  W.  C,  7-17,  24,  28-31,  33,  34,  i-xxii. 

McBurney,  Robert  R.,  43,  44,  48,  52,  73,  84. 

McCormick,  R.  C,  33,  xii,  xvi. 

Metropolitan  organizations,  72,  73,  104. 

Miller,  H.  Thane,  24,  45. 

Moody,  D.  L.,  37,  59-61. 

Morse,  R.  C,  46. 

Mott,  John  R.,  67,  80,  92. 

Neff,  William  H.,  11,  12,  24-26,  34,  vii-ix,  xiv,  xv,  xxii. 

Paris  basis,  33,  xxii. 

Periodicals  and  publications,  42,  71,  iii. 

Secretarialism,  84,  85. 

Secretarial  training,  55,  59-62,  66,  67,  83. 

Smyth,  D.  D.,  Thomas,  book  on  associations,  1858,  19,  20. 

State  and  provincial  work : 

Advisory  relation,  99-102. 

Conventions  originally  called  by  international  committee,  45. 

Discussed  at  international  conventions,  41,  49-53,  75-79,  91. 

Established  by  Albany  international  convention,  1866,  41. 


Index 

Expenditure,  growth  of,  88-90,  94,  96,  104. 

General  evangelistic  effort  contrasted  with  exclusive  work 

for  young  men,  49-53. 
Growth,  45,  53,  58,  66,  68,  69,  87-90,  94-96,  105. 
Objective,  96-98. 
Relation  to  international  work,  53,  75-79;    to  associations, 

96-102. 
Value,  103-106. 
Stokes,  James,  63,  80. 
Stuart,  George  H.,  25,  36,  38. 
Student  volunteer  movement,  80. 

Student  work:    Wishard,  L.  D.,  first  secretary,  57;  later  secre- 
taries, 67;  volunteer  movement,  80;  world's  federation,  80. 
Summary,  109-111. 

Taggart,  S.  A.,  51. 

Training  schools,  66. 

Transient  elements  in  local  work,  103. 

U.  S.  Christian  commission,  36-38. 

Weidensall,  Robert,  44,  91. 

Williams,  George,  35,  107. 

World's  conference:     American  participation  in,  7,  33,  63,  79; 

world's  committee  appointed,  63. 
World  federation  fostered,  32-35,  63,  79-81. 
World's  student  Christian  federation,  80. 

Young  Men's  Christian  association: 
Associations  constituting  confederation,  15. 
Branches,  73,  74,  78. 
Buildings,  48,  49,  62,  85. 

Concentration  on  work  for  young  men,  41,  53,  82. 
Evangelical  test,  46. 
Expenditure,  growth  of,  66,  70,  97,  101. 
Independent,  new  associations,  recognition  of,  74,  78. 
Internal  development,  66,  67,  69,  86. 
Lay  control,  84,  85. 

xxix 


Index 

Metropolitan  organization,  72,  73,  104. 

Number  organized  in  early  years,  23,  i,  ii,  iv,  xvii. 

Object  of,  27-30,  41,  50-53,  82. 

Relation  to  international  and  state  committees,  75-79,  98. 

Religious  work  dominant,  19,  107,  108. 

Representation  at  Buffalo  convention,  1854,  9. 

Training  and  securing  secretaries,  55,  59-62,  66,  67,  83. 

Transient  elements  in,  103. 

Various  classes,  work  among,  56,  57,  67,  87. 

Work  in  Boston,  17;  Chicago,  49;  Cincinnati,  11,  17;  Mon- 
treal, 18,  xi;  New  Orleans,  17;  New  York,  18,  35,  36,48, 
72,  97,  i,  iii-viii,  x-xvii;  Richmond,  19,  38;  Toronto,  17, 
viii-x;  Washington,  i-xiv. 


1    1012  01234  5783 


Date  Due 

N  28'^ 

. 

<§) 

